Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/108

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Vanderbank
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Vanderbank

the Asia returned to England, and having been refitted was sent to the East Indies. She came home with convoy in the beginning of 1781, and in the following year Vandeput, in the 98-gun ship Atlas, took part in the relief of Gibraltar and the desultory action off Cape Spartel on 20 Oct. He is said by Burke to have assumed the title of baronet after his father's death, 17 June 1784. If so, it was not acknowledged by the admiralty, nor in his official position. After the peace, Vandeput commanded the Princess Augusta yacht till, on 1 Feb. 1793, he was promoted to be rear-admiral. On 4 July 1794 he was made vice-admiral, and through 1795 had command of a small squadron in the North Sea. In 1796, with his flag in the St. Albans, he was employed on convoy service to Lisbon and the Mediterranean; and in 1797, still in the St. Albans, he commanded the squadron on the coast of North America. Towards the end of the year he shifted his flag to the Resolution, and in 1798 to the Asia. He was promoted to the rank of admiral on 14 Feb. 1799. He died suddenly, on board the Asia, at sea on 14 March 1800. The body was sent, by the Cleopatra, to Providence, and there buried. He left an illegitimate son, George, who is also said to have called himself a baronet.

[Charnock's Biogr. Nav. vi. 572; Schomberg's Naval Chronology; Commission and Warrant Books in the Public Record Office; Gent. Mag. 1800, i. 488.]

J. K. L.

VANDERBANK, JOHN (1694?–1739), portrait-painter, son of Peter Vanderbank [q. v.], was born in England about 1694. He was a highly gifted painter, and for a short time during the reign of George I enjoyed a great reputation; but his career was marred and his life shortened by vicious and extravagant habits. Soon after 1724 he opened a drawing academy in rivalry with that of Sir James Thornhill [q. v.], introducing a female model, but it proved a failure. In 1729 he went to France to avoid his creditors, and on his return entered the liberties of the Fleet. He died of consumption in Holles Street, Cavendish Square, London, on 23 Dec. 1739, aged about 45, and was buried in Marylebone church. Vanderbank's portraits, among which are those of many eminent persons, are skilfully drawn and full of character, but slight and careless in execution. He had a great talent for historical composition, and Vertue speaks highly of some of his works of this class. He furnished a set of clever designs for the illustrations to the edition of the Spanish text of ‘Don Quixote’ published in London under Lord Carteret's patronage in 1738; also those for ‘Twenty-five Actions of the Manage Horse, engraved by Josephus Sympson,’ 1729. Vanderbank's portraits of Sir Isaac Newton and Samuel Clarke are in the National Portrait Gallery, and that of Thomas Guy is at Guy's Hospital; two others of Newton belong to the Royal Society. Many of his portraits were engraved by John Faber and George White. An album containing his original sketches and finished drawings for the ‘Don Quixote’ plates is in the print-room of the British Museum. His portrait occurs in the group of artists painted by Hogarth, now in the university galleries at Oxford, of which there is an engraving by R. Sawyer.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting; Vertue's Collections in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 23076 f. 13, 23079 f. 11); Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1739, p. 660.]

F. M. O'D.

VANDERBANK or VANDREBANC, PETER (1649–1697), engraver, was born in Paris in 1649, and studied his art there under Nicolas Poilly. About 1674 he accompanied Henri Gascar [q. v.] to England, and gained a reputation as an engraver of portraits, which he executed on a larger scale than any previously produced in this country. He worked with great mechanical skill, but his plates are deficient in the higher qualities of the art. They include portraits of Charles II, James II, Mary Beatrix, the Prince and Princess of Orange, Louis XIV, the Duke of Monmouth, Sir William Temple, Sir E. Berry Godfrey, and other prominent persons, chiefly from pictures by Lely, Kneller, and Gascar; also a ‘Holy Family’ and ‘Christ on the Mount of Olives,’ after S. Bourdon, and three plates from Verrio's ceilings at Windsor. Vanderbank engraved, from drawings by Lutterell, the earlier portraits in Kennett's ‘History of England.’ On his prints his name is always spelt ‘Vandrebanc.’ He received very inadequate remuneration for his work, and at the end of life was in reduced circumstances. He died in 1697 at Bradfield, Hertfordshire, the residence of John Forester, whose sister he had married, and was buried on 4 Oct. in the church of Cottered-cum-Bradfield. After his death his widow sold his plates to Abraham Browne, a print-dealer, to whom they proved a source of great profit. A mezzotint by George White, inscribed ‘Peter Vanderbank, engraver,’ has been assumed to be a portrait of him, and copied by A. W. Warren for the 1849 edition of Walpole's ‘Anecdotes;’ but the costume is of a somewhat later date, and it may possibly represent one of his sons, who is said to have