Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manby, Thomas (fl.1670-1690)

by Lionel Henry Cust

MANBY, THOMAS (fl. 1670–1690), landscape-painter, is spoken of as 'a good English landskip-painter, who had been several times in Italy, and consequently painted much after the Italian manner.' From Vertue's extracts from the diaries of Mr. Beale, the husband of Mary Beale [q. v.], it appears that Manby was employed to paint in landscapes in the background of the portraits by her and probably other painters af the time. Manby brought from Italy a large collection of pictures, which were sold at the Banqueting House in Whitehall about 1680.

[Buckeridge's Supplement to De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum.]

L. C.