Animal Painters of England from the Year 1650; A Brief History of Their Lives and Works Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... were the subjects to which he devoted his brush and his success in the portrayal of these was the more remarkable, inasmuch as he was entirely self-taught. His birds, particularly, show strength and truth of colouring, but spirit and fidelity to nature distinguish all his works. His paintings were in much request for decorative purposes to be placed over chimney-pieces and doors; their value rose greatly after his death for Horace Walpole quoting Vertue, the great authority on painting in the various English collections, states that Cradock's pictures frequently brought from three to four times the price the artist received for them. The British Museum contains four examples of this artist's work, engraved by Josephus Sympson, 1740-1743: --(1) A Heron and Geese near a mill wheel; (2) Hawk swooping down on Fowls; (3) Hawk carrying off a Chicken; (4) Various birds--pigeons, plover, and a parrot perched on a bough. The birds in the above four engravings are very spirited in drawing. Size of each plate 18 inches by 14 inches. A painting by Cradock is described in a catalogue of the sale of pictures belonging to Sir G. Osborne Page Turner, Battlesden Park, Woburn, 7th June, 1824: " Poultry, a Stork, a Passage-boat on a Canal, and Figures crossing a Bridge." The catalogue of a sale at Christie's in May, 1847, includes one of his works, " Poultry attacked by a Hawk," the property of Edward Harman. Luke Cradock died in London 1717, and was buried at St. Mary's, Whitechapel. DAVID DALBY. (Born circa 1790.) "pvAVID DALBY was born about the year 1790, and was probably a Yorkshireman; but where he first saw the light, who were his parents, how or where he received his education, under what circumstances he adopted the brush as a means of livelihood, and...