Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/77

 of the royalists (Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 204, 208, 217). An anecdote of an interview between Cromwell and Evans is given in the ‘Faithful Scout,’ 21–8 Sept. 1655. An account of him is also given in the ‘Letters of Robert Loveday,’ 1662, p. 172. Between 1652 and the Restoration Evans published the following tracts: 1. ‘A Voice from Heaven to the Commonwealth of England,’ 1652. 2. ‘An Echo to the Voice from Heaven, or a Narration of the Life, Calling, and Visions of Arise Evans,’ 1653. 3. ‘The Bloody Vision of John Farley interpreted, together with a Refutation of Aspinwell.’ 4. ‘Brief Description of the Fifth Monarchy,’ 1653. 5. ‘The Voice of Michael the Archangel to his Highness the Lord Protector,’ 1654. 6. ‘The Voice of King Charles the Father, to Charles the Son,’ 1655. 7. ‘Light for the Jews, or the Means to Convert them, in answer to the “Hope of Israel,” by Manasseth Ben Israel,’ 1656. 8. ‘A Rule from Heaven,’ 1659.

The date of the death of Evans is uncertain. He survived the Restoration, and was touched by Charles II for the king's evil. Aubrey says: ‘Arise Evans had a fungous nose, and said it was revealed to him that the king's hand would cure him, and at the first coming of King Charles II into St. James's Park he kissed the king's hand, and rubbed his nose with it, which disturbed the king, but cured him’ (Miscellanies, ed. 1857, p. 128).

[A detailed account of Evans's case is given in John Browne's Charisma Basilicon, 1684, p. 162. Warburton discusses the prophecies of Evans in the Appendix to book i. of Jortin's remarks on Ecclesiastical History, ed. 1767, i. 249.]  EVANS, RICHARD (1784–1871), portrait-painter and copyist, was for some years pupil and assistant to Sir Thomas Lawrence, for whom he painted drapery and backgrounds and made replicas of his works. He also made copies after Nash and other artists. He resided for many years in Rome, copying pictures by the old masters and painting portraits. He also tried his hand at fresco-painting, and on quitting Rome gave one of his attempts in that line to the servant who swept out his studio. Years afterwards he was surprised to find this hanging in South Kensington Museum as a genuine antique fresco from a tomb in the neighbourhood of Rome. In 1814 he visited the Louvre in Paris, and was one of the first Englishmen to copy the pictures then collected there. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1816, sending a portrait of Mr. Sadler, the aeronaut, and was a frequent exhibitor up to 1859, principally of portraits. He continued to paint up to the end of his life, and executed a large picture of ‘The Death of Æsculapius’ when over 85 years of age. He died at Southampton, where he had resided for more than a quarter of a century, in November 1871, aged 87. Evans had great powers of memory, and had many anecdotes of Lawrence and other famous artists. His extensive knowledge of art was of great use to the founders of the Original School of Design at Somerset House in 1837. During his residence at Rome he made a collection of casts from antique statuary, some of which he presented to the Hartley Institute, Southampton. The copies of the Raphael arabesques which are in the South Kensington Museum are by Evans. In the National Portrait Gallery there are by him portraits of Sir Thomas Lawrence (from a picture by himself), Lord Thurlow (from a picture by Lawrence), and Thomas Taylor, the Platonist.

[Art Journal, 1872, p. 75; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Catalogues of Royal Academy, &c.]  EVANS, ROBERT HARDING (1778–1857), bookseller and auctioneer, born in 1778, was the son of Thomas Evans (1742–1784) [q. v.] After an education at Westminster School he was apprenticed to Thomas Payne of the Mews Gate, and succeeded to the business of James Edwards (1757–1816) [q. v.], bookseller in Pall Mall, which Evans continued until 1812. In this year he commenced a long and successful career as auctioneer with the sale of the Duke of Roxburghe's library (, Bibliographical Decameron, iii. 49–68). Among other famous libraries dispersed by him were those of Colonel Stanley (1813), Stanesby Alchorne (1813), John Towneley (1814), and James Edwards (1815), the Duke of Devonshire's duplicates (1815), the Duke of Grafton's library (1815), the vellum-printed books of Field-marshal Junot (1816), and the Borromeo collection of novels and romances (1817). He also sold the White Knights library, those of Bindley, Dent, Hibbert, North, and some portions of Heber's (1836). Between 1812 and 1847 the chief libraries sold in England went through his hands. His own marked set of catalogues is now in the British Museum. Possessing an excellent memory and rich store of information, he was in the habit of discoursing upon the books passing under his hammer. His expertness as an auctioneer was not assisted by ordinary business qualities, and he fell into pecuniary embarrassment. When re-established as a bookseller in Bond Street, in partnership with his two sons, he was again unfortunate. He was a fervid politician, and