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 3) (London: Smith and Son, 1831)

VAN DYCK.

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page 239.) It is a well-studied and carefully-matured production;
the back of the kneeling mendicant is finely articulated, and the
whole is finished with a rich impasto and brilliancy of colour, that
may well vie with the best works os Rubens, to whose pencil, if it
were not for the style of some parts of the drawing, it would pro-
bably be attributed.
This excellent picture owres its origin to the charms of a young
female, who is said to have detained the painter from pursuing his
journey to Italy, and that during his stay with her at the village of
Saveltham, she prevailed upon him to paint this and another pic-
ture (described in this Work), both of which were presented by
her to the parish church of that village. About the year 1750, the
deacons of the church took upon themselves the liberty of attempt-
ing to dispose of this picture for the sum of 4000 flo. (360Z.),
to a M. Hoet, a distinguished collector at the Hague ; but the com-
pletion of the bargain was prevented by the interference of the
peasants of the village, who armed themselves, surrounded the
church, and compelled the vendors to unpack, and replace their fa-
vourite St. Martin ; the purchaser also would have been roughly
handled, had he not prudently made his escape from the village.
The same zealous attachment to the picture was manifested by the
inhabitants of the village, in 1806, when a detachment of French
soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Barbier Valbone (a por-
trait painter), attempted to remove it, the villagers rose en masse,
closed the doors of the church, and kept the whole of the company
besieged until a reinforcement arrived from Brussels. It was then
placed in the Louvre, until removed by the victorious arms of the
Allies, in 1815, and it now adorns the altar for which it was ori-
ginally destined.
A Sketch, the first idea of the preceding picture, was sold in the
collection of M. Willebroech, Brussels, 1781. . 18Z.

35. St. Francis, habited in the dress of his Order; his arms
are extended, and his countenance directed upwards to the
miraculous appearance of the Saviour on a cross in the heavens.
A very indifferent picture.
Engraved by Krafft.