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 in the technique of his art, painted and exhibited several pictures highly commended by the German critics, and sent one, 'The Wild Emperor Mountains,' to the Royal Academy. In 1857 he returned to England, and unsuccessfully sought release from his imprudent contract. His first important work, 'Sunset on the Atlantic,' was exhibited at Liverpool in November of this year, and excited great admiration from the effective treatment of sea and sky. In 1858 he produced his 'Temple of Venus,' a gorgeous ideal composition painted in emulation of Turner; and in the autumn of this year went to Rome and painted his grand picture of the Coliseum, a most impressive work. The skeleton of the colossal edifice rears itself gaunt and black against the prevailing moonlight, and the barefooted Capuchins, who on the same spot inspired Gibbon with the thought of his 'Decline and Fall,' bearing torches at the head of a dim funeral procession, steal along in the deep shadows. It was intended to be the final member of a series of poetical landscapes illustrating the rise, greatness, and decline of imperial Rome, which, with this exception, were never painted. In February 1859 he married Eliza, daughter of William Johnson Fox, herself an artist of distinguished talent. His health failing almost immediately afterwards, he returned to England, freed himself from his bondage by a heavy payment, partly in money and partly in pictures, and in 1860 was again in Italy, where he made sketches for numerous landscapes subsequently executed, among which 'Under the Pine Trees at Castle Fusano, 'On the Hills above Varenna,' 'The Chestnut Woods at Varenna,' 'Etruscan Tombs at Civita Castellana,' and 'The Villa d'Este, Tivoli,' deserve especial mention. His principal patron at this time was Mr. James Wolff of Southampton, for whom the 'Temple of Venus' had been painted, and who acquired so many of his works as to form a 'Bridell Gallery,' subsequently dispersed by auction, when it produced nearly four thousand pounds. He also enjoyed the patronage of Sir Theodore Martin, Mr. John Platt, and other collectors of discrimination, and seemed to have every prospect of a brilliant career, when in August 1863 he succumbed to consumption, originated by early privations and aggravated by his devotion to art. Notwithstanding his youth and the obstacles created by impaired health and unfavourable circumstances, he had already proved himself 'a great master of landscape and an honour to the English school'. His art had gone counter to the tendencies of his day. While his contemporaries, under pre-Raphaelite influences, inclined more and more to the minute and realistic, Bridell, inspired by Turner, was broad, ample, and imaginative. His work was bold and rapid, full of rich colour and refined feeling. He aimed especially at conveying the sentiment of a landscape. Every picture was inspired by some leading idea, which made itself felt in the minutest detail. Sunrise and sunset, mist and moonshine, combinations of light and shade in general, were his favourite effects. 'In his painting of skies and clouds in particular,' says Sir Theodore Martin, 'Mr. Bridell seems to us to occupy a place among British artists only second to Turner.' As a man he was a type of the artistic temperament, bright and genial, impulsive and affectionate, quick of apprehension, and fertile in ideas, and, when not depressed by sickness or excessive toil, full of energy and enthusiasm. He had wonderfully overcome the disadvantages of his early education, and his notes of travel and art, though perfectly simple and nowise intended for publicity, show that he could write as well as paint.

 BRIDEOAKE, RALPH (1613–1678), bishop of Chichester, was of lowly parentage, being, according to Wood, the son of Richard Brideoake, or Briddock, of Cheetham Hill, Manchester, by his wife, Cicely, daughter of John Booth of Lancashire. He was born at Cheetham Hill, and was baptised at the Manchester parish church on 31 Jan. 1612-13. He was educated at the Manchester grammar school, and admitted a student of Brasenose College, Oxford, 15 July 1630. He graduated B.A. in 1634, and through the favour of Dr. Pink, warden of New College, Oxford, was appointed pro-chaplain of that college. In 1636, by royal letters, he was made M.A., having then the reputation of being a good Greek scholar and a poet. He addressed some verses to Thomas Randolph, prefixed to his 'Poems;' and he wrote two elegies on the death of 'Master Ben Jonson.' To eke out his income he took the curacy of Wytham, near Oxford, and acted also as corrector of the press in the university. In this last capacity he had occasion to revise a book by Dr. Thomas Jackson, president of Corpus Christi College, who was so much pleased with Brideoake's work, that he rewarded him with the mastership of the Manchester free grammar school, which fell vacant about the year 1638, and of which Jackson was patron. Of this school Brideoake was