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28
Annual Register

paint some pictures for them, he replied, that "they had no occasion for him, having in their city so fine a Rose." His master-piece, the consecration of St. Nicholas, is over the high altar of the chapel of St. Anne, in St. Nicholas church, at Ghent. 
Rubens finished the picture of the adoration of the wise men, now at the high altar of the choir in the abbey-church of St. Michael, Antwerp, in less than a fortnight, and received for it as many hundred florins, as he had employed days. The abbot being disgusted at this high price, was pacified by his picture, which Rubens gave him. This picture may be seen on the tomb of that abbot, near the high alter. It is affirmed, that as many florins for that, as Rubens received for the other. 
Soon after Vandyck's return from Italy, he accidentally met with D. Teniers, who accosted him with great politeness, and asked him, whether he had much business since he came from Rome? "What business, think you, can I have had time to do?" replied Vandyck; "I am only just arrived here. Would you believe, that I offered to draw that fat brewer's picture, who just now passed us, for two pistoles, and that the looby laughed in my face, saying it was  too dear? I assure you, that, if the cards do not turn up better, I shall make no long stay at Brussels." Soon after this, he pained those two famous pictures, the Nativity, and a Dying Christ, the first in the parish-church, the second in that of the Capauchins, at Termond.
When he was in Holland, he was very desirous to see Franc Hals, the painter, who had great reputation then for portraits. On entering his room, he asked to have his picture drawn. Hals, who knew Vandyck only by fame, undertook it, and went to work. The latter, feeing his head finished, rose up, saying, that it was a striking likeness. Afterwards he proposed to Hals, that if he would sit in return, he would also draw his picture; to which Hals having agreed, merely from curiosity, exclaimed, on feeing his picture finished in so short a time, "Thou art the devil, or else Vandyck." This picture of Hals has been engraved by Coster [[?]]at the Hague. 
Vandyck, finding he could not make a fortune in his own country, took a resolution of going over into England. Accordingly he borrowed some guineas of Teniers, and set out, furnished with letters of recommendation. His superior genius soon brought him into great reputation; and above all, he excelled in portraits, which he drew with an inconceiveable facility, and for which he charged a very high price, according to the instructions which had been given him on that head. It is affirmed, that for some of them he received 400 guines [[guineas]] apiece. He soon found himself loaded with honours and riches, and, as he had a noble and generous heart, he made a figure suitable to his fortune; his table was elegant, and plentifully furnished, and he often entertained his guests, after dinner, with a concert performed by the best musicians of London. Notwithstanding this expence, he amassed great wealth; when a chemist had the art to insinuate himself into his esteem, and inspired him with a desire of converting copper into gold; but the secret

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For the Year 1772

secret had no other effect, than making him convert his gold into smoke. Rubens, being informed of it, wrote to his disciple; he acknowledged his error, and corrected it. At length Vandyck, being at an early age subject to the gout, was attacked by a fever, which undermined him by degrees, and carried him to the grave in the year 1641, at the age of 42. He was buried in St. Paul's, and left to his heirs a considerable estate, which some have made amount to 40,000 l. sterling [[?]]
Behind the high alter, in St. James's church at Antwerp, is Rubens's chapel, in which he was interred May 31, 1640, aged 63. At the altar of that chapel, is a picture of his painting, representing the blessed Virgin sitting with the child Jesus in her lap, accompanied by St. Jerom and St. George. The latter, who is on the left, with a banner in his hand, is the portrait of Ruben, who has there drawn himself; and, what is more remarkable, the faces of the Virgin, and of two other Saintesses, are those of his three wives. This admirable picture is engraved by Pontius. M.Parys, canon of Antwerp, who is a relation of Ruben's third wife, has, among other pictures, those of Rubens, and his second and third wife, all drawn by that great master.
[Though the above is generally said and believed, no historian ( as we remember) mentions more than two of his wives, viz. Catherine de Breats, and Helena Forman.]

Anecdotes of Rembrandt.

Van Rhin Rembrandt was a painter and engraver of the Flemish school; he was born in 1606, in a mill upon the banks of the Rhine, from whence he derived his name of Van Rhin. This master was born with a creative genius, which never attained perfection. It was said of him, that he would have invented paintings, if he had not found it already discovered. Without study, without the assistance of any master, but by his own instinct, he formed rules, and a certain practical method for colouring, and the mixture produced the designed effect. Nature is not set off to the greatest advantage in his pictures; but there is such a striking truth and simplicity in them, that his heads, particularly his portraits, seem animated, and rising from the canvass. He was fond of strong contrasts of light and shade. The light entered in his working room only by a hole, in the manner of a camera obscura, by which he judged with greater certainty of his productions. This artist considered painting like the stage, where the characters do not strike unless they are exaggerated. He did not pursue the method of the Flemish painters of finishing his pieces. He sometimes gave his light such thick touches, that it seemed more like modelling than painting. A head of his has been shewn, the nose of which was so thick of paint, as that which he copied from nature. He was told one day, that by his peculiar method of employing colours, his pieces appeared rugged and uneven - he replied, he was a painter, and not a dyer. He took a pleasure in dressing his figures in an extraordinary manner: with this view he had collected a great number of eastern caps, ancient armour, and

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