Nollekens and His Times/Volume 2/Liart

by John Thomas Smith

LIART.

Bryan, in his "Dictionary of Painters and Engravers," speaking of Matthew Liart, the Engraver, erroneously states that "This artist was born at Paris in 1736, but came to England when very young, where he was employed in engraving some plates for Mr. Boydell's collection." Matthew Liart was born in London, in a house built by his grandfather, a respectable periwig-maker and barber, on the south-west corner of Compton-street and Crown-street^[1] which was, until 1762, called Hog-lane. Liart's family, as well as many other natives of France, settled upon this spot after the Edict of Nantz. The barber's son, Liart's father, who was a maker of survelois, a relishing kind of sausage, placed him with the celebrated Monsieur Ravenet, the Engraver, with whom he remained seven years. Liart then occupied his father's second-floor front room, in which he engraved all his plates.

He drew at the Royal Academy, where he gained the silver medal for a drawing of a figure from the life; and he also obtained a prize from the Society of Arts. Mr. West has declared that Liart drew the human figure well, and he has frequently been heard to observe, that had he studied the historical and highest class of the art, he was quite certain he would have succeeded. He died about the year 1782, in Compton-street, in the house in which he was born, and in the room in which he engraved, and was buried at Paddington. Mr. Audinet, the Engraver, from whom I received some of the above particulars, and who has a spirited portrait of him painted by Laurenson, is perfectly satisfied that Liart never even saw the sea.

Of the various plates engraven by Liart, the two from Mr. West's pictures of Venus and Adonis, and Cephalus and Frocris, are unquestionably his best.

1. Near an old house with pillars before it, then standing on the site of the entrance to the present chapel in Moor-street: it was called "the French Change," being a place much frequented, and indeed surrounded by natives of France, who came to England after the Edict of Nantz. Here they met, and communicated with each other upon their several concerns; and hence arose the establishment of the numerous à-la-mode beef shops for the convenience of the neighbourhood.