Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/435

 most of the ornamental frames for Houbraken's well-known portraits of English historical celebrities. He was a friend of Garrick, and made a drawing of Mlle. Clairon, the actress, for him. According to Vertue he was inclined to give himself airs, and Vertue records a fracas at Slaughter's coffee-house caused by Gravelot's slighting remarks on the artists employed by Sir Andrew Fountaine [q. v.] He appears to have lived at first at the Golden Cup in Bow Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards at James Street, Covent Garden, though another account says that he kept a drawing school in the Strand opposite Southampton Street (, Nollekens and his Times, ii. 208). He taught drawing from the life at his academy, and among his pupils was Thomas Gainsborough [q. v.] Many of his drawings in England were engraved by Charles Grignon [q. v.] In 1745 Gravelot returned to Paris, finding, according to French accounts, the position of a Frenchman in England unpleasant after the English defeat at Fontenoy. He is said to have again revisited England, and to have finally returned to Paris in 1754. His fame as an illustrator of books preceded him, and he found constant employment from the Parisian publishers. He worked assiduously till his sight failed him. He died in Paris on 20 April 1773, and was buried in the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. Gravelot led a retired life, and courted no public honours. He was twice married, each time imprudently, but left no children.

Gravelot's illustrations to books are notable for their wealth of grace and fancy, and are executed often in the smallest compass with incredible lightness and delicacy. His art was quite peculiar to himself, and the beauty of his drawings was often lost in the engraving. His designs show both the good and the bad taste of the age, and he is seen to better advantage as an illustrator of romance or poetry, where his imagination had freer play, than of historical or dramatic works. While in England he drew the illustrations for Theobald's ‘Shakespeare’ (1740), and, with F. Hayman, R.A., for Sir Thomas Hanmer's ‘Shakespeare’ (1744–6). Other noticeable works were the illustrations to Gay's ‘Fables’ (1738), ‘The Dunciad,’ Dryden's plays, and ‘Tom Jones,’ besides numerous plates of costumes, caricatures, architecture, &c. Among the last may be noted the interior of Westminster Hall, showing the shops, and the judges in court at the further end. After his return to France his most noticeable works were the illustrations to Boccaccio's ‘Decamerone’ (1757), Voltaire's edition of Corneille's works (1764), Voltaire's own works (1768), Racine's works (1768), and Marmontel's ‘Contes.’ He etched a few plates himself, and at one time took to painting, which, in spite of Boucher's commendation, he abandoned as being too expensive, and begun too late in life. While in England Gravelot published a ‘Treatise on Perspective.’ Examples of his numerous works and several drawings are in the print room at the British Museum. Two portraits of him exist, one engraved by Massard from a drawing by La Tour, and another by Henriques from a drawing by Gravelot himself.

[All biographies of Gravelot are based on the eulogy of him by his brother, d'Anville, in the Nécrologie for 1774. See also notices by MM. E. and J. de Goncourt in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February 1868, and by Baron Roger Portalis in Les Dessinateurs d'Illustrations au dix-huitième Siècle; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Duplessis's Histoire de la Gravure; Vertue's MSS. (Addit. MSS. Brit. Mus. 23067, &c.); Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.] 

GRAVES, JAMES (1815–1886), archæologist, eldest son of the Rev. Richard Graves, was born in the town of Kilkenny on 11 Oct. 1815. He graduated B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a clergyman of the protestant episcopalian church in the diocese of Ossory. Through the influence of a relative, J. G. A. Prim, editor and subsequently proprietor of the ‘Kilkenny Moderator,’ Graves became interested in archælogical pursuits, the results of which he published in that journal. Some memoranda, by Graves and Prim, concerning the ancient topography of Kilkenny, were included in a volume of annals of Ireland edited by the Rev. Richard Butler (Dublin, 1849). Graves and Prim helped to establish the Kilkenny Archæological Society for the preservation, examination, and illustration of ancient monuments of Irish history, manners, customs, and arts, especially as connected with the county and city of Kilkenny. The initial meeting of this society was held in May 1849, and its first publication appeared in 1850. In 1857 Graves and Prim issued at Dublin a quarto volume on the history, architecture, and antiquities of the cathedral church of St. Canice, Kilkenny—a portion of a projected work on the history of the diocese of Ossory, which was never completed. In 1863 Graves was presented with the small living of Inisnag, about eight miles from Kilkenny. In 1869 the Kilkenny Archæological Society became the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland. Graves continued to labour assiduously in its behalf, aided by Prim, who died in 1875. Graves edited in the Rolls Series ‘A Roll