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)

SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS.

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to him as a painter of interiors, representing guard rooms
and conversational subjects; these are executed in a manner
so different from the style of Potter, that it would probably
never have occurred to the mind of the most scrutinizing*
inquirer, to have attributed his instruction to that master.
The Writer once possessed a picture by Le Due, representing
a party of men playing at skettles on the sea shore; but even
this was coloured and finished like his usual works. John Le
Due was born at the Hague in 1636, and aster studying the art
for some years, he entered the army, and obtained the rank of
captain : he, however, again resumed the palette, and became pre-
sident of the academy at the Hague, where he died in 1695.
Dirk Theodore Raphael Camphuysen. The instruction
in art of this painter is attributed to Diederic Govertz, a
master, of whose name or works no mention whatever is made
by biographers, so far as the Writer has been able to learn.
Without pursuing farther a useless inquiry after an obscure
painter, a close inspection of the pictures by Camphuysen will
convince the unprejudiced mind, that their author in most
instances aimed at an imitation of Paul Potter’s style; and it
may fairly be conjectured that he either practised under him,
or copied from his works: the latter is the more probable.
Among several instances in which this artist’s pictures have
passed current as the genuine works of Potter, the Writer will
adduce one of considerable publicity. A capital Landscape,
on the fore-ground of which are two cows and two sheep, of
the size of nature: a herdsman, and a woman with a yoke on
her shoulders, are seen in an adjoining field (size 6 st. Qin. by
8ft. Sin.—C). This picture was exhibited in the Louvre
in 1814, under the name of Potter; and was claimed, and
restored to the Gallery at Hesse Cassel in 1815, where it
still retains the same name; but is, in fact, the work of
this painter. Camphuysen was born in 1586, and died at an
advanced age.