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 6) (London: Smith and Son, 1835)

JOHN WYNANTS.

--
1 his excellent landscape painter was born at Haarlem,
in 1600; but such has been the negligence or ignorance
of biographers, that no mention is made of his con-
dition in life, or even the name of the master under
whom he learnt the art. To his pictures, therefore,
must the inquirer look for any knowledge of the man,
or any trace of his master. These will satisfactorily
inform him, that Wynants was a studious person, and
a close observer of nature; that he was also endowed
with considerable taste, and strong imitative faculties;
but as no similarity of style or colour to those of any
other painter is discoverable in his pictures, it is
probable that he learnt the art by the force of his own
natural genius. His early works usually represent
the picturesque habitation of the peasant, or the ruins
of some ancient mansion, with its mouldering walls,
an adjacent road, and the surrounding country ; these
are always painted in a neat and careful manner, and
in a tone of colour tending to brown or blackish hues.
In his second period he becomes more excursive,
breaks into the open country, and encounters a wide
expanse of landscape, composed of hill and dale, woods
VOL. VI. Q.