Lane. Obtaining thus a freer hand than his father, he chiefly practised etching. He was also very extensively employed by the booksellers on engravings of small size and little importance. Among his works were a set of engravings from the paintings in the cupola of St. Paul's Cathedral by Sir James Thornhill [q. v.] He also had a large business as a picture-dealer. Van der Gucht died at his house in Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, on 18 March 1776, having had between thirty and forty children by his wife, who survived him. His younger brother, Jan Van der Gucht (1697–1728?), also practised engraving under his father's direction, and worked for some time in Germany. On returning to London he worked in rivalry to his brother in the same line of engraving. He is stated to have assisted Hogarth in some of his earlier plates. He died, however, about 1728, of gout and fever, when only about thirty-one years of age.
Benjamin Van der Gucht (d. 1794), painter and picture-dealer, was thirty-second child of Gerard Van der Gucht, and one of twins. He studied drawing in the academy at St. Martin's Lane, and on the foundation of the Royal Academy he became one of the first students in its schools. He painted several portraits of some excellence, the majority known being those of actors, such as Garrick, Johnstone, Moody, and Woodward, some of which were engraved. A portrait of the last-named is in the Lock Hospital. Van der Gucht, however, obtained more repute as a picture-restorer and picture-dealer, and as such was extensively patronised in the highest circles of society. He lived for some time in Pall Mall, on the site afterwards occupied by the Shakespeare Gallery and now by the Marlborough Club. When he inherited his father's house in Upper Brook Street he built a picture gallery on to his house, in which he stored the high-class pictures in which he dealt, charging one shilling to strangers for admission to view the collection. On 21 Sept. 1794, while returning from a visit on business to the Earl of Burlington at Chiswick House, the boat in which Van der Gucht was travelling was run down off Barnes Terrace, and Van der Gucht, though an expert swimmer, was drowned. His collection was sold by auction at Christie's in March 1796. Descendants of the family still remain.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Vertue's Diaries (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 23076, &c.); Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Rombout and Lerius's Liggeren der St Lukasgilde te Antwerpen; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]
VANDERLINT, JACOB (d. 1740), economic writer, was a timber merchant at Blackfriars, London. In 1734 he published an economic treatise of some value entitled ‘Money Answers all Things; or an Essay to make Money plentiful among all Ranks of People and increase our Foreign and Domestick Trade,’ London, 8vo. In this work he laid down clearly several theories which have since been developed by later economists, pointing out in particular the principle that nominal prices vary according to the abundance or scarcity of money. He proposed to improve the commercial condition of England by reducing the general rental twenty per cent., which he ingeniously endeavoured to prove would be of no detriment to the landlord on account of the general cheapening of labour and commodities which would follow. His book is lucidly written, and is an interesting exposition of the principles which guided the commercial part of the nation, and of their points of difference with the landed class. Vanderlint died in February 1739–40.
[McCulloch's Lit. of Pol. Econ. p. 162; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; London Mag. 1740, p. 102; Annals of Europe, 1740, p. 547.]
VAN DER MYN or VAN DER MIJN, HERMAN (1684–1741), portrait-painter, born at Amsterdam in 1684, was the son of a Dutch minister. In 1718 he was at Paris, where he attracted the notice of the painter Coypel, who recommended him to the Duke of Orleans. He had not succeeded in finding employment in Paris, when he was patronised by an Englishman, named Burroughs, who brought him over to London. There Van der Myn was employed by the Duke of Chandos, Lord Cadogan, Sir Gregory Page, and others. He obtained a great reputation for small portraits, in which the details were most laboriously and neatly executed, and found many sitters, including Queen Caroline. Van der Myn lived in a large house in Soho Square; but an imprudent marriage, leading to a large family, together with extravagance, involved him in debt, to avoid which he returned in 1736 to Amsterdam. He did not return to London until 1741, shortly after which date he died. By his wife, Susanna Bloemendael, he left six sons and one daughter. His sister, Agatha van der Myn (b. 1705?), who came over from Holland with him, was a painter of flowers and still life. Five of Van der Myn's sons—Gerhardt, Andreas, Frans (1719–1783), Joris (1723–1763), and Robert—and his daughter Cornelia also practised painting. Frans (or Frank) Van der Myn obtained some repute
