Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bardwell, Thomas
BARDWELL, THOMAS (d. 1780?), portrait painter, is known chiefly as a copyist. He painted a picture of ‘Dr. Ward relieving his sick and lame patients,’ which is libellously described by one authority (Hobbes) as a painting of a ‘quack doctor.’ This same Dr. Ward is caricatured by Hogarth. This picture was engraved (1748–9) probably by Baron. There is also a mezzotint by Faber after a portrait by Bardwell of Admiral Vernon. At Oxford, in the university galleries, there are portraits by him of the Earl and Countess of Pomfret. In 1756 he published the ‘Practice of Painting and Perspective made Easy.’ This work was well thought of in its day. Mr. Edwards thinks, however, that in so far as it treats of perspective, it is a snare and delusion. A pirated edition, omitting the perspective, appeared in 1795. Bardwell died about 1780.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters, 1808; Hobbes's Picture Collector's Manual, 1849; Füssli's Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, 1806; Redgrave's Dict.]