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 8) (London: Smith and Son, 1837)

OBSERVATIONS.

191

day is yielding to the absorbing rays of the rising
luminary; the sost zephyrs appear to agitate in gentle
ripples the surface of the lucid streams, and to breathe
in whispers among the foliage of the surrounding
groves. Either the shepherd is there seen leading his
slocks and herds to pasture, or the goddess Diana,
with her attendants, sallying forth to the chace.
Every period of the day, with all its elemental vicissi-
tudes, has been successfully embodied by his magic
pencil, and even the gorgeous splendour of a summer’s
evening, with all its dazzling brightness, was not
beyond the reach of his master hand.
Architecture appears to have been, from an early
period of his life, a favourite branch of the art; for
this, he evidently possessed a refined taste and a ready
invention, and he lost few opportunities of showing
his predilection for such objects whenever his scenes
permitted it. Palaces, temples, and other noble
edifices, or the ruined remains of such structures of
Greek or Roman origin, are appropriately introduced,
whether the picture exhibit sea ports, or inland scenes,
and these are composed with so much skill and ap-
parent propriety, that it is easy to imagine they once
had an existence at some glorious era of the Greek
or Roman states. This illusion is still further
heightened by the representation of some event from
sacred or profane history, poetry, or romance, which
accords (with some few exceptions) with the style of
the buildings and the nature of the scenes depicted.
Claude is reported to have taken much pains by
frequenting the academy, in order to acquire a correct