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 5) (London: Smith and Son, 1834)

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SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS
OF
NICHOLAS BERGHEM.

The free and spirited execution which so eminently dis-
tinguish the works of Berghem, has not secured them from
the tolerably-successful imitation of several painters, who have
not only succeeded in attaining his most prevailing tones of
colour, but have also dexterously caught his manner of hand-
ling ; so that, although such attempts present in general to
the eye of the connoisseur, but an indifferent plagiarism of the
coarsest and slightest of the master’s works, they are never-
theless sufficient to deceive and mislead the inexperienced
amateur; for nothing more effectually deludes the eye, than
the mastery of hand with which some of those imitations are
done.
Genuine pictures by Berghem, however slightly painted,
are always perfect in the tones of gradation, as well as correct
in drawing; and in his choicest works, there is such delicacy
of penciling, purity of colouring, and exquisite drawing, that
they are effectually beyond the reach of deceptive imitation.
John Wils, or Wilts. There is too close an affinity
between the style of this painter and that of Berghem, to