Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/270

 Duke of Tuscany, including his own portrait, which was placed in the Gallery of Painters at Florence. Among other notabilities painted by him were Admiral Tromp, Vollenhove, Beverningk, Thaddeus de Lantmann, Leo van Aitzema, Jan de Bisschop, and others, many of which have been engraved; he also painted pictures of corporations at Amsterdam, the Hague, Leyden, and elsewhere. He does not appear to have been more than a second-rate artist in spite of his success, and Appelman is said to have painted the landscape backgrounds to his pictures. He died at the Hague in March 1702. By his wife he had six children, of whom one, Jacobus de Baan, followed his father's profession. He was born at the Hague in 1673, and at the age of eighteen attained a success as a portrait-painter equal to that of his father, under whom he studied at the Academy of the Painters' Guild of St. Luke at the Hague. He came to England after the accession of William III and painted portraits of the king, the Duke of Gloucester, and many of the nobility at court. Subsequently he went to Italy and painted pictures for the Grand Duke of Tuscany at Florence, eventually passing on to Rome. Here he was a zealous student, and from his size was nicknamed the Gladiator by his companions. Unfortunately his progress in art was ruined by his extravagance and dissipation, and he died in 1700, aged 27, at Vienna, whither he had gone in the train of a German prince. Besides portraits he painted history and conversation pieces.

[Nouvelle Biographie Générale; Descamps's Vies des Peintres; Immerzeel's Levens en Werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Kunstschilders, &c.; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum, iii. Appendix; Nagler's Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, ed. Meyer; Obreen's Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis, iii–iv.; Drugulin's Catalogue of Foreign Portraits; Catalogues of the Museums at Amsterdam, the Hague, &c.]  DEBRETT, JOHN (d. 1822), publisher and compiler, took over the business of John Almon [q. v.], opposite Burlington House in Piccadilly, in 1781. His shop continued to be the resort of the whigs, the Pittites going chiefly to his neighbour, Stockdale. Among Debrett's publications were a new edition of ‘The New Foundling Hospital for Wit,’ 1784, 6 vols. 12mo, and ‘Asylum for Fugitive Pieces in Prose and Verse,’ 1785–1788, 4 vols. 12mo. At the end of the former work, ‘The New Peerage,’ 1784, 3 vols. 8vo, is advertised. This had been Almon's, who published peerages, but is not known to have had any share in their compilation. The first edition of Debrett's ‘Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland, containing an Account of all the Peers,’ 2 vols. 12mo, was published in May 1802, with plates of arms, a second edition appeared in September 1802, a third in June 1803, a fourth in 1805, a fifth in 1806, a sixth in 1808, a seventh in 1809, an eighth in 1812, a ninth in 1814, a tenth in 1816, an eleventh in 1817, a twelfth in 1819, a thirteenth in 1820, a fourteenth in 1822, a fifteenth in 1823, which was the last edition edited by Debrett, and not published until after his death. The next edition came out in 1825. The first edition of ‘The Baronetage of England, containing their Descent and Present State, by John Debrett,’ 2 vols. 12mo, appeared in 1808. The latter and the ‘Peerage’ still flourish, and Debrett's name has become so associated with such books of reference that it is also used in the title of companion works. For a time the ‘British Imperial Calendar’ was edited by Debrett. He retired from business about 1814, and lived partly upon a pension from his wife and partly from his compilations. He is described as a kindly, good-natured man, but without business aptitudes. He died at his lodgings in Upper Gloucester Street, Regent's Park, on 15 Nov. 1822.

[Gent. Mag. vol. xcii. pt. ii. p. 474; Annual Biography, 1822, p. 441; Timperley's Encyclopædia, pp. 823, 886; Catalogue of Works on the Peerage and Baronetage in Library of Sir C. G. Young, 1827, 8vo, pp. 40–1.]  DE BRIE, DICK THEODORE (1528–1598), engraver, was born at Liège in 1528, and worked for the greater part of his life at Frankfort. He was for some years in London, and did work here which makes his name of some interest to the English student. He engraved the plates to Boissard's ‘Roman Antiquities,’ published in four volumes. He engraved also, in thirty-four plates, ‘The Grand Funeral Procession and Obsequies of Sir Philip Sidney.’ These were ‘invented’ by Thomas Lant, ‘Portcullis Poursuivant,’ and appeared in 1587. De Brie also engraved the plates to the ‘Brief and True Report of the New found land of Virginia,’ by Thomas Hariot.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers.]  DE BRUYN, THEODORE (d. 1804), landscape-painter, born in Switzerland, settled in England about 1760. He painted in different styles, but chiefly landscapes with cattle and figures. For about twenty years he was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy.