poser. His voice (tenor) was sweet, clear, flexible, and extensive; he played the harpsichord neatly. His ‘taste, fancy, and delicacy, together with his beautiful person and spirited and intelligent manner of acting, gained him general approbation’ (cf. Burney, History, iv. 501, 527). Among his pupils were Braham and Incledon.
Rauzzini's operas were: ‘Piramo e Tisbe’ (1769), in which he took Piramo, ‘L'Ali d'Amore’ (1770), ‘L'Eroe cinese’ (1770), ‘Astarto’ (1772), all played at Munich; ‘La Regina di Golconda’ (1775), ‘Armida’ (1778), ‘Creusa in Delfo’ (1782), ‘La Vestale’ (1787), produced in London. Besides he wrote a pianoforte quartett, op. 1 (Offenbach, n.d.); string quartetts opp. 2, 5, 7 (London); sonatas for violin and pianoforte; a requiem mass; and Italian and English songs, arias, exercises, and solfeggi.
Matteo Rauzzini (1754–1791), brother of the foregoing, was also a singer. He was born in Rome in 1754, and came to England with Venanzio. He settled in Dublin as a professor of singing, and produced there an opera, ‘Il Re pastore,’ in 1784. He died in Dublin, 1791.
[Hogarth's Memoirs of the Music Drama, ii. 174; Harmonicon, 1831–2, pp. 132, 147; Parke's Musical Memoirs, i. 245–6, 306; Kelly's Reminiscences, i. 9, ii. 106; Burney's Journal of a Tour through Germany, &c.; Gent. Mag. 1810, ii. 397, 490; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, passim (in iv. 191 is an account of Haydn's composition of a round on the death of ‘Turk,’ Rauzzini's dog, at Rauzzini's house in Bath); Pohl's Haydn in London, p. 276.]
RAVEN, JOHN SAMUEL (1829–1877), landscape-painter, born on 21 Aug. 1829 at Preston, Lancashire, was a son of Thomas Raven, minister of Holy Trinity Church in that town, and himself a clever watercolour painter, examples of whose skill are in the South Kensington Museum. The son received no professional training, but formed his first style by studying the works of Crome and Constable, and from 1849 was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and British Institution, chiefly of views in the vicinity of St. Leonards, where he resided until 1856. The ‘pre-Raphaelite’ movement strongly influenced Raven, producing a complete change in his aim and method, and his later works are characterised by great elaboration of detail, an original and striking scheme of colour, and strong poetic feeling. His best pictures of this class are ‘Midsummer, Moonlight, Dew Rising,’ 1866; ‘Lago Maggiore from Stresa,’ 1871; ‘Fresh fallen Snow on the Matterhorn,’ 1872; ‘The lesser Light to rule the Night,’ 1873; ‘Twilight in the Wood’ (engraved by C. Cousen for the ‘Art Journal,’ 1874); ‘The Heavens declare the Glory of God,’ 1875; and his last exhibited work, ‘Barff—Lord's Seat from the Slopes of Skiddaw,’ 1877. He was drowned while bathing at Harlech in North Wales, being seized with paralysis of the heart, on 13 June 1877. Raven worked chiefly in oils, but occasionally also in water-colours, and executed many fine studies in black and white. He married, in 1869, Margaret Sinclair Dunbar, now Mrs. William B. Morris. An exhibition of Raven's collected works was held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1878.
[Burlington Fine Arts Club Catalogue; Athenæum, 21 July 1877; Art Journal, 1877; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; information from Mrs. Morris.]
RAVENET, SIMON FRANÇOIS (1721?–1774), engraver, born in Paris about 1721 (or, according to other accounts, in 1706), studied engraving in the excellent school of Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, and engraved numerous pictures of importance after Titian, Paolo Veronese, D. Feti, Charles Coypel, A. Watteau, and others. Ravenet came to London about 1750, and was associated with F. Vivares, V. M. Picot, and other French engravers in founding an important school of line-engraving in London. In these engravings the ground outline was strongly etched, and then finished with the engraver. Ravenet was largely employed by Alderman John Boydell, for whom he engraved important plates after C. Cignani, Luca Giordano, Guido Reni, N. Poussin, Salvator Rosa, and others. He was associated with J. M. Delâtre in engraving Hogarth's ‘Good Samaritan,’ and with Picot in Hogarth's ‘Pool of Bethesda,’ both of which engravings were published in 1772. Ravenet was also largely employed in making designs for the porcelain manufactory at Chelsea. He engraved several portraits, including Lord Camden after Sir Joshua Reynolds, George II after D. Morier, and others. Ravenet died in London on 2 April 1774. A portrait of him, by Zoffany, was engraved by himself in 1763. He left a son, Simon François Ravenet the younger, born in London about 1755, who learnt engraving under his father, but returned to Paris, where he engraved many plates after Boucher, Correggio, and others.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Beraldi et Portalis's Graveurs du 18me Siècle; Smith's Nollekens and his Times.]
