Smith, John: A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters: in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 2) (London: Smith and Son, 1830)

SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS.

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Martin Pepin. Of this contemporary of Rubens very
little authentic information is given by biographers; neither the
master by whom he was instructed, the place of his residence,
nor the time of his decease, are correctly known. His style
of painting would induce an opinion that he was instructed by
Otho Voenius; be this as it may, it is said that he went while
young to Italy, where he acquired, by his talents, an excellent
reputation; in further confirmation of this it is added, that when
a rumour was spread at Antwerp of his intended return, even
Rubens felt some uneasiness, and was heard to state, that he
(Pepin) was the only artist capable of competing with him for
the palm of superiority. All this is probably mere fiction:
if this painter had spent the greater part of his life in Italy, as
is stated, his works would unquestionably be known in that
country, and appear in the public galleries; this, however, is
not the fact, and as there are a number of his pictures in the
Low Countries, it is much more likely that he spent a large
portion of his time there: this probability is further corrobo-
rated by the time when his portrait was painted in Flanders,
by Van Dyck, namely, about the year 1628. The few pictures
by his hand, which have come under the Writer’s view, bear
considerable resemblance to the manner of Rubens ; one of these,
representing St. Norbert, is in the church of Notre Dame, at
Antwerp, and there are three others in the Academy of that
city. He was born at Antwerp, in 1578, and died about 1635.
Gerard Seghers. The similarity of this distinguished
painter’s works to those of Rubens consists more in the form
and similitude of the figures than in the brilliancy of the colour-
ing, but even in this particular many of his latter works are by
no means deficient; their difference consisting chiessy in the
shadows having a tendency to brown, and a slight degree of
hardness in the outlines and in the marking of the features,
with a palpable deficiency in that animated expression which
is ever the distinguishing characteristic of Rubens. Van Baelen
and Jansens were his first instructors in painting; to improve