John Browne is another eminent engraver of land scape of this time. He has executed several large works after S. Rosa, Both, and other great masters, in an excellent style. He likewise etched many of the plates which were afterwards finished by Woollett with the graver.
Flom this period, the English school is prolific in ar tists in every department. In history, the first name that we ought to mention is that of' Sir Robert Strange. He is admirable for the breadth of his effect, and the beauty of his execution; but his great excellency is the delica cy and softness of his female flesh. In this last, notwith standing the perfection that modern art has arrived at, in all those great qualities which result from mechani cal skill, he has never been equalled by any master, as his engravings from the works of Titian, Guido, Corre gio, and the other painters of the Italian schools, suffi ciently show; but it is deeply to be regretted that, with so many excellencies, his drawing should be so incor rect, particularly in the extremities. Of the other artists who have excelled in history, we have only room to men tion a few names; Legat, Basirc, Hall, Ryland, Barto lozzi, Heath, Holloway, and many others of our cotcm poraries, who maintain, with distinguished success, the respectability of English art.
In the engraving of portrait, the English school, for a century back, has produced little in the line manner, which in this way has been almost entirely superseded by mezzotint° ; and, more particularly in small por traits, by stippling. The method of mezzotinto is acini rably adapted for portraits. especially in the imitating of the bold, broad manner, of the English style, which ori ginated in Sir Joshua Reynolds, and has ever since been the distinguishing characteristic or this school. We have many good portraits by the earlier artists, such as Faber, Al' Ardel, Smith, Williams, and others; but, in the portraits of Earlom, Watson, V. Green, &c. after Reynolds, we see the art carried to the utmost per fection. In stippling, or the chalk manner, the artists and their productions are innumerable, and of very- differ ent degrees of merit, principally of a small size for books. We have, however, many beautifully executed in the chalk manner by Bartalozzo, IIull, Collycr, and others ; hut there is perhaps none superior to those of Caroline Watson, who has produced, among many others, that head of Sir J. Reynolds which forms the frontispiece to
his works, and which, for spirit and effect, is hardly sur passed by the works of any artist.
In landscape, besides Vivares, INToollett, and Brown, whom we have already mentioned, we have many fine works, principally from the pictures of the old masters, by Byrne, Mason, Wood, Elliot, Lowry, \Vilson, Major, Earlom, and others ; but, of late years, the taste for em bellishing books with subjects of topography and anti quities, having been carried to a most extravagant height, has diverted the current of British genius from the more dignified province of heroic landscape, and absorbed all the talent of the English school ; which, (without depre ciating the true value and interest of such works), would have been more worthily employed in translating the works of Claude Lorraine, Poussin, R. 'Wilson, and some of the eminent artists of the English school.
Engraving in aquatinta, which was invented by St Non, and communicated to Le Prince of Paris about the middle of last century, was brought to England, and greatly improved by Sandby. It has been carried to great perfection by our cotemporarics, in imitating Indian drawings ; and the process, being simple and expedi tious, and of course well adapted to commercial pur poses, has been much practised. The English painters have produced few etchings that merit our attention ; and what they have executed, arc chiefly on the soft ground, or on stone, the separate processes of which will be found detailed at the end of this article.
Mezzotint° has been likewise employed with the greatest success in imitating the effect of drawings, as is exemplified in that excellent work by Earlom, called the Libel. Veritatis, being a collection of 200 plates from the drawings of Claude Lorraine, in the collection of the duke of Devonshire. The brilliancy of the effect has been rendered in an admirable style with the mezzotint°, and the outline added with much truth and spirit, with etching.