Swanevelt, Herman

, an eminent Flemish landscape painter, was born in 1620, and is generally said to have been the disciple of Gerard Douw; but he went very young to Italy, and placed himself with Claude Lorraine, and soon proved worthy of so distinguished a master. He studied nature incessantly; and very frequently, along with Claude, observed the lingings of the morning-light on the |

surfaces of different objects, on the mountains, rocks, trees, skies, and waters; and the various effects of light at noon and evening; by which he was enabled to give his own works so much truth and nature, as will for ever render them extremely estimable, and in his life-time they were sold for very high prices. He also enriched his ideas by frequenting the elegant remains of antiquity about Home, and in that study spent all his leisure hours, and from his retired manner of life, although he was by birth a Fleming, he was distinguished by the name of the Hermit of Italy. The reputation xvhich his pictures procured him, and the demand he had for them, excited in some degree the jealousy of Claude, which is a proof how near he approached him. He etched also in a bold, free, and masterly style, and published, from his own designs, various sets of landscapes, amounting in all to one hundred and fourteen. He died in 1680. ¹