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Page:Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 1.djvu/233

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PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.


BOISFREMONT, Charles de. one of the pages of Louis XVI., went to America during the Revolu- tion, and there taught liimself painting. On liis return he commenced esliibiting his works, in which lie seems to have adopted Prud'hon as his model. Art is indebted to him for the restoration of the pictures at Versailles when they were in a very bad state of decay. The date of his birth is uncer- tain. He died in 1838. He exhibited amongst others the following :

The Death of Abel. 1803. Hector upbraiding Paris (yoM medal and 500 francs). 1806. The Descent of Orpheus into Hell (gold medal and 1000 francs). 1808. The Clemency of Napoleon towards the Princess of Hatzfeld {purchased hy the Government, and executed in tapestry at the Gobelins for the cabinet of Napoleov at the Tu'ileries). 1808. The Education of Jupiter on Mount Ida {forming thi ceiling of the pavilion o{ Marsan). 1812. The Good Samaritan {in the Rouen Museum'). 1822. The Death of Cleopatra (also in the Eouen Museum). 1824. The Chastity of Joseph. 1826. he D&habille. Same year.

BOISSARD, Michel J., was a French engraver of the seventeenth century. ' A Holy Family,' of the year 1650, is his only known engraving.

BOISSARD, RoBEBT, an engraver, was bom at Valence about 1570. He worked in the manner of Theodoor de Bry. He used the same mark as Ren^ Boivin. but their works should not be confounded. In France and England we have by him : Portrait of Robert, Earl of Essex ; after Bromley Portrait of Henry IV. of France. Nymphs bathing ; in the manner of Aldegrexer. Judgment of Paris ; in the manner of Lucas van Leyden.

BOISSELIER. AxTOiXE F^lix, a French his- torical and landscape painter, was bom in Paris, in 1790. He was a pupil of Berlin, and exhibited, in 1819, ' The Death of the Athlete Polydamas ; ' in 1822, ' The Death of Bayard ' (now at Fontaine- bleau) ; and in 1824 obtained the first gold medal. He died in 1857.

BOISSELIER, FSlix, ' the elder,' a French his- torical painter, was born at Damphal (Haute- Mame) in 1776, and in early life was employed as draughtsman in a manufactory of decorative papers. At the time of the Revolution he was thrown into prison, and after regaining his liberty entered the studio of Regnault. In 1805, and again in 1806, he obtained the grand prize in painting, and to- wards the end of the latter year went to Rome, where he died in 1811. His ' Death of Adonis,' exhibited in 1812, is now in the Louvre.

BOISSEREE, Melchior, an artist and antiquary, was bom at Cologne in 1786. He undertook, in conjunction with his brother, Sulpice Boisseree, and J. B. Bertram, the formation of a collection of pictures by ancient German masters, to which the three devoted twenty years' labour and the bulk of their fortunes. These pictures, with some few exceptions which are in the chapel of St. Maurice at Nuremberg, were purchased by the King of Bavaria, in 1827, for 120.000 thalers (£18,000), and are now in the Pinakothek at Munich. Boisseree executed and published in 1834 a series of large litho- graphs of these pictures in thirty-eight numbers. He was also the discoverer of a new and simple method of painting upon glass by means of the bmsh alone, and employed it for the reproduction of the best works in the ancient collection formed by him, as well as of some chefs-dceume of the Italian school which are now at Bonn. His death took place at that town in 1851.

BOISSEVIN, L., was a printseller, and is supposed to have onjjraved the following plates :

Charles I. OUver Cromwell. Cardinal Barberini ; dated 1623. BOISSIER, Andb6 Claude, a French painter of religious subjects, was bom at Nantes in 1760. He studied under Brenet, and settled at ChSteau-Gon- tier. Among his best works are an 'Assumption ' and an 'Apotheosis of St. Vincent de Paul.' both of which are at Pekin ; a ' Temptation of Christ,' and an 'Adoration of the Shepherds.' He died at Chfiteau-Gontier about 1840.

B0ISSI|;RE. See De la Boissiere.

BOISSIEU, Jean Jacques de, a French painter, more celebrated as an engraver, was bom at Lyons in 1736. He studied first in his native city, but afterwards went to Paris, where he numbered Joseph Vemet and Greuze among his friends, and then to Italy. He subsequently returned to Lyons. Declining health compelled him to give up painting in oil in favour of drawing and engraving, and he preferred to live in retirement near Lyons to shining in his profession in Paris. He died at Lyons in 1810. He painted some pictures of simi- lar subjects to those by Ostade, — the Dutch School was ever his favourite. — and also some portraits. Two Landscapes vrHh figures and buildings by him are in the Berlin Gallery — one is dated 1773 ; and a Landscape with figures is in the Louvre. Boissien is, however, principally known by the charming etchings he has left us of landscapes and other subjects, both from his own designs and those of other masters. The number of his plates, which are generally marked D. B., with the date, is 140. The following are his best prints :

A mountainous Landscape, with Waterfall ; after Asselyn. A Landscape, with Shepherds, by the water-side ; after Berchem. The Quack Doctor ; after K. du Jardin. An Old Man, with a Boy reading; in the manner of Rembrandt. A Cooper working in a Cellar ; the same. A Landscape, with a Boy driving an Ox ; after Rmsdael. A Landscape, with fig:ires in a Boat, and a Mill : after the same. The Great Mill ; after the same. Tlie Mower's Best ; after Adriaan ran de Velde. An Italian Landscape, with "Women washing. A Forest, with a Cottage, and a Man on Horseback, with Peasants. Another Forest scene ; the companion. A Landscape, with figures and animals, in the middle a Hill, on which is a Cross, and an old Man kneeling. A View near Tivoli, with a Man and a Woman mounted on a Mule, driving Cattle through a Eivulet. A Landscape, with a Hermit, at the entrance of a Cavern. 1797. A Landscape, with large figures, and two Cows standing in the Water. The two last mentioned, with the first and ' The Great Mill,' are his best plates. See ' Catalogue raisonne de son CEuvre.' Lyons. 1878. 8vo.

BOIT, Charles, the son of a Frenchman, was born at Stockholm about 1663, and began life as a jeweller. He went to England and established himself as a drawing-master, but afterwards took to painting in enamel, an art in which he excelled so much that he was commissioned to paint for Queen Anne a plate twenty-four inches by eighteen in commemoration of the victories of the Duke of

Mariborough and Prince Eugene, which, however,

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