Page:Dictionary of Artists of the English School (1878).djvu/150

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other engravings after his designs were published in 1753, and there is an excellent plate by him of the well-known Marylebone Gardens, published in 1761, full of well- drawn ana characteristic figures.

DORIGNY, Sir Nicholas, Knt., en- graver. Born at Paris 1657. He was brought up to the bar. which at the age of 30 his deafness compelled him to abandon. Haying a brother a painter, he turned to art, and went to Rome, where for several years he studied painting. He then tried etching, and produced some plates after Raphael, the success of which tempted him to use the graver, and after lesser works he engraved Raphael's * Crucifixion '—a work of great excellence. Some English travel- lers, with whom he was acquainted, then induced him to come to England to engrave the cartoons, and after nearly 25 years' residence in Rome, he left that city and arrived in London in the summer of 1711. He applied himself at once to raise the funds for this undertaking, which he com- menced in the following Easter, upon a subscription of four guineas for the set, and with the patronage of Queen Anne, who assigned him an apartment at Hamp- ton Court. He was in his 55th year, and hopeless of completing the work with his own hand, he availed himself of the assist- ance of two engravers whom he brought over from Paris, and with this help he was enabled, in April 1719, to present a com- plete set of the work to George I., who, in the following year, conferred on him the honour of knighthood. He had passed his best days before he even beean the work. He must have been much nelped by in- ferior assistants, and his cartoons do not rank with his earlier productions. While in England he painted some portraits, but did not meet with much success. His eye- sight had failed. In 1723 he sold his col- lection of drawings, and in the next year returned to Paris, where he died in 1746, aged 89.

DORR ELL, Edmund, water-colour painter. Born at Warwick in 1778, and was brought up by his uncle, who had a good medical practice there, and intended him for his own profession, but yielded, however, to his love for drawing and etch- ing, and assisted him to study art. He soon attained some proficiency, and for many years practised in London as a water- colour painter. He was an occasional ex- hibitor at the Academy from 1807 to 1828. He contributed to the Water-Colour Society in 1809 as ' fellow exhibitor/ and the fol- lowing year as a member. In 1814 he seceded from the Society, but sent some drawings, 1815-18, as an outside exhibitor. He painted landscape scenes, sometimes with effects of storm. Amonff his con- tributions was a view of Ranelagn Gardens.

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He died in London in 1857, in his 80th year.

DOUGHTY, William, painter and en- graver. Was born at York, and in 1775 became, on the introduction of the poet Mason, the pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whom, and in his house, he continued for three years. He then went to Ireland, and though possessed of good ability ana recommended by Sir Joshua, did not suc- ceed. He returned to London greatly dispirited, and in 1779 lived in Little Titchfiela Street, Cavendish Square. He practised for a short time in his native city, and in 1780 set sail for Bengal, accom- panied by a servant girl he had just before married from Reynolds's house. The vessel was captured by the combined French and Spanish squadrons, and he was carried into Lisbon, where he died in 1782. He ex- hibited a good three-quarters portrait of Reynolds in 1778, and in the following year a ' Circe/ but is best known by his mezzo- tints after Reynolds, and some others, which are very effective and artist-like. He also left a few etchings.

DOUGLAS, William, miniature painter. He was brought up in Edin- burgh, and was a pupil of Rohert Scott, the engraver. He practised with great ability as a miniature painter about 1825.

DOWNES, Bern abd, portrait painter. He practised in London, and occasionally in the provinces. He was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1766, and appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1770, continuing till 1775, when he ceased to exhibit, and died shortly after. He tried landscape as well as por- traits, but his works were without merit.

DOWNMAN, John, A.R.A., portrait and subject painter. He was Dorn in Devonshire, and coming early to London, was the pupil of Benjamin West, P.R.A. He studied in the schools of the Royal Academy. He first exhibited with the Free Society of Artists in 1767, and in 1770 sent to the Academy Exhibition a kit-cat portrait of * A Lady at Work/ fol- lowed by another portrait in 1772, and in the next year by * The Death of Lucretia. , In 1777 ne was practising as a portrait painter at Cambridge, and in the two suc- ceeding years exhibited small portraits and subject pictures. He then returned to London, and up to 1802 continued to con- tribute a large number of portraits, with an occasional domestic subject, to the ex- hibition. In 1795 he was elected an as- sociate of the Academy. He then visited, in 1806, Plymouth. In 1807-8 he prac- tised at Exeter, and after some years^stay in London, was for about two years, 1818- 19, at Chester, continuing to exhibit the same class of subjects. He died at Wrex- ham, Denbighshire, December 24, 1824.

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