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 7) (London: Smith and Son, 1836)

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SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS OF

and sought every means to improve his style by the purchase
of the finest casts from the antique, together with a large
collection of drawings and prints, by and after the best
Italian and other masters; these at his decease, in 1660, sold
for upwards of 12,000^0. His works, however, do not show
that he reaped any great advantage from these acquisitions.
Gerbrant Vanden Eeckhout. This excellent scholar
of Rembrandt is second to no one as an imitator in the long
list of painters who have issued from this school. Endowed
by nature with a ready invention, a good taste for historical
compositions, and an ardent love for his profession, he soon
became an expert tactician in the whole arcana of the school,
and seized upon every peculiarity of the master, even to the
whimsicality of the dresses and decorations. His best works
display an admirable dexterity in the execution, accompanied
by rich and unctuous colouring, and a skilful distribution
of light and shade ; to these may be added other essentials,
as free and masterly drawing, and a considerable share of
expression; yet with all these advantages, there is a vast
distance between the works of the master and scholar. In
those of the latter, you look in vain for that depth of thought
and unity of expression, the magical diffusion of chiaro scuro,
and illusive gradation of tone, and, lastly, for that lustrous
brilliancy and transparency of colour, which no imitator has
hitherto successfully attained.
Eeckhout occasionally amused himself in representing fami-
liar subjects, as soldiers playing at back-gammon, ladies and
gentlemen at cards, or taking refreshments. These are painted
somewhat in the manner of Metzu and Terburg, with the
difference, that a blacker hue of colouring predominates in
the shadows, and a heavier style in the execution. One of
his finest works, in the manner of Rembrandt, representing
the Triumph of Mordecai, is in the collection of the Marquis