HOLLAR, WENcEstAus or WENzEn, a celebrated engraver; b. 1607, in Bohemia. He was apprenticed to Matthew Marian, a pupil of Rubens and Vandyck, to learn engraving. He was only 18 when he published his first pieces, consisting of prints of the Virgin, the "Ecce Homo," and some other pieces. Leaving Prague be began a wander ing life through Germany, taking views of the chief towns and of the most striking scenery of the Danube, Rhine, and other streams, which brought him great fame but no regular employment. Hollar's fortunes were at a very low ebb when he fell in with the earl of Arundel, who attached him to his service. Soon after reaching England with his patron he was appointed to instruct the prince of Wales in drawing; and in 1640 published his Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus, or the several habits of Englishwomen from the Hobilitie to the Countrywoman, as they are in these Times. After the outbreak of the civil war he incurred the suspicions of parliament, and was imprisoned for a short time. Making his way to Antwerp, where lord Arundel was then residing, he wrought quietly and assiduously for print-sellers and publishers during several years. His pieces never having fetched prices at all proportionate to their merits, lie was forced, in order to make a living, to place a price upon his time. He fixed his tariff at fourpence an
hour, which he marked by a sand-glass. So exact was he that when any one, even his employers, came to speak with him about the picture on hand, lie always turned down his glass. charging payment only for the time he was actually engaged with his burin. It was in this humble way that he produced his fine engravings after Da Vinci and the great masters of portrait-painting. On returning to England after the restoration, Hol lar worked with the same unflagging industry, and with no more profitable result than in his younger days. His plates in Dugdale's Monasticon and History of St. Paul's attest his diligence. In 1669 he was commissioned by Charles II. to take plans and perspec tive drawings of Tangier and its fortifications, which, on his return to England, be engraved. His last known engravings are his unfinished illustrations of England, Antiquities of Nottinghamshire. These and other works occupied him till his 70th year, but without gaining for him an independence. On his very deathbed an execution was served upon his house. His last words were a petition to be allowed to die in his bed, and that he might not be removed to any other prison but his grave. It is not known whether this prayer was granted.