fore he had been rewarded for all his distresses by the fair hand of Miss Lumisden. Without waiting long in the metropolis, he went to Rouen, where
a number of his companions in the late unfortunate war were livin- in exile and where he obtained an honorary prize given by the academy. He afterwards resided for some time at Paris, where he studied with great assiduity under the celebrated Le Bas, who taught him the use of the dry needle. In 1751, he returned to London, and settled as an engraver, devoting himself chiefly to historical subjects, which he handled in so masterly a manner that
be soon attracted considerable notice. In 1759, when he had resolved to visit Italy, for his further improvement, Mr Allan Ramsay intimated to him that it would be agreeable to the prince of Wales and the earl of Bute, if he would undertake the engraving of two portraits which he had just painted for those eminent personages. Mr Strange refused, on the plea of his visit to Italy, which would thus be put off for a considerable time, and he is said to have thus lost the favour of the royal preceptor, which was afterwards of material disadvantage to him, although the king ultimately approved of his conduct, on the ground that the portraits were not worthy, as works of art, of being commemorated by him.
Mr Strange set out for Italy in 1760, and in the course of his tour visited Naples, Florence, and other distinguished seats of the arts. He was everywhere treated with the utmost attention and respect by persons of every rank. He was made a member of the academies of Rome, Florence, and Bologna, and professor of the royal academy at Parma. His portrait was introduced by Roffanelli, amongst those of other distinguished engravers, into a painting on the ceiling of that room in the Vatican library where the engravings are kept. He had also the distinguished honour of being permitted to erect a scaffold in one of the rooms of that magnificent palace for the purpose of taking a drawing of the Parnassus of Raphael; a favour not previously granted for many years to any petitioning artist. And an apartment was assigned for his own abode, while engaged in this employment A similar honour was conferred upon him at the palace of the king of Naples, where he wished to copy a celebrated painting by Schidoni. Mr Strange's drawings were in coloured crayons; an invention of his own, and they were admired by all who saw them. Pie subsequently engraved prints on a spjendid scale from about fifty of the paintings which he had thus copied in Italy.[1]
The subsequent part of the life of Mr Strange was spent in London, where he did not acquire the favour of the court till 1787, when he was knighted. A letter by him to lord Bute, reflecting on some instances of persecution which he thought he traced to that nobleman, appeared in 1775 and was subsequently
- ↑ The following are among the principal engravings by Sir Robert Strange: Two heads of himself, one an etching, the other a finished proof; The Return from Market by Wouvermans; Cupid by Vanloo; Mary Magdalen; Cleopatra; the Madonna; the Angel Gabriel; the Virgin with the child asleep; Liberality and Modesty, by Guido; Apollo rewarding merit and punishing arrogance, by Andrea Sacchi; the Finding of Romulus and Remus, by Pietro de Cortona; Caesar repudiating Pompeia, by the same; Three children of Charles I., by Vandyke; Belisarius, by Salvator Rosa; St Agnes, by Domenichino; the Judgment of Hercules, by Nicolas Poussin; Venus attired by the Graces, by Guido; Justice and Meekness, by Raphael; the Offspring of Love, by Guido; Cupid Sleeping, by the same Abraham, giving up the handmaid Hagar, by Guercino; Esther, a suppliant before Ahasuerus, by the same; Joseph and Potiphar's wife, by Guido; Venus, by the same; Danae, by the same; Portrait of Charks I. by Vandyke: the Madonna, by Corregio; St Cecilia, by Raphael; Mary Magdalen, by Guido; Our Saviour appearing to his Molher after his resurrection, by Guercino; A Mother and Child, by Parmegiano; Cupid Meditating, by Schidoni; Laomedon, king of Troy, detected by Neptune and Apollo, by Salvator Rosa. Sir Robert, near the close of his life, formed about eighty reserved proof copies of his best prints into as many volumes, to which he added a general title-page, and an introduction on the progress of engraving.
