Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bogdani, James
BOGDANI or BOGDANE, JAMES (d. 1720), painter, was born in Hungary, the son of a deputy from the states of that country to the emperor. He received no professional training, but by the force of his natural abilities attained to a considerable degree of excellence as a painter of still-life and birds. He came at an early age to this country, where he was for some time known only as ‘The Hungarian.’ Queen Anne patronised him, and he made a fortune by the practice of his art; but in his later years he experienced a series of misfortunes which reduced him to poverty; and, after a residence of nearly fifty years in England, he died in London in 1720. His pictures and goods were sold by auction at his house, the sign of the Golden Eagle, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. There are at Hampton Court eight pictures by Bogdani, some of which were expressly painted for the panels in the ‘King's Closet.'
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (Wornum), p. 629; Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters, ed. Davenport (1852); Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878); MS. notes in British Museum.]