Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/167

 royalist ranks as a soldier in the regiment of the Marquis of Winchester. He was soon taken prisoner at Basing House by the parliamentary forces, but made his escape to Antwerp, where he found the Earl of Arundel settled with other royalist exiles. We find the entry ‘Wenceslaus Hollar, plaetsnyder,’ figuring in the book of the members of the Gild of St. Luke at Antwerp for 1645. The earl died at Padua in 1646. Hollar, reduced to great straits, was compelled to drudge at Antwerp at very low prices. In 1647 he engraved his own portrait. In 1652 he returned to England. He soon got employment, and illustrated among other works Ogilby's ‘Virgil,’ Dugdale's ‘St. Paul's,’ and Stapleton's ‘Juvenal.’ About 1654 he was employed in the house of Faithorne the engraver, and also by Stent and Overton the printsellers, who, according to Vertue, gave him very small pay, it seems about fourpence an hour ‘at his usual method by the hour-glass.’ Vertue tells us that he had it on the best authority that for the view of Greenwich, a large engraving in two plates, Hollar received from Stent only thirty shillings. The hour-glass by which the artist worked is constantly represented in his portraits.

On the accession of Charles II, Hollar was appointed ‘His Majestie's designer,’ and produced one of his chief works, the coronation of Charles II at Westminster. On 4 Sept. 1660 the king directed a letter to be sent to Sir Thomas Aleyn, lord mayor of London, informing him that Hollar had designed and cut in copper a large map of London and its suburbs, but that the work remained incomplete on account of the expenses incurred. The aldermen and other well-disposed citizens were therefore requested to assist Hollar in finishing the work (Remembrancia, p. 213; cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1666–7, p. 111). The corporation of London on this and other occasions rendered Hollar some assistance. The plague in 1665 and the fire in the following year threw him again out of employment. He made suggestions to Evelyn for the rebuilding of London, and executed a very fine map of the city, leaving the burnt portions blank (cf., Diary, iii. 14). He was sworn the king's ‘scenographer’ on 21 Nov. 1666 (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1666–7, p. 256), and appealed to Charles II for pecuniary aid in the next year (ib. 1667, p. 430). In 1669 he was sent by the government in the suite of Lord Henry Howard to Tangier, where he remained for about a year. On his way back the ship in which he sailed, the Mary Rose, under the command of Captain Kempthorne, was almost captured by Algerine pirates. Of this adventure Hollar engraved a picture. For all his labours and perils he received only 100l. In 1672 he made a tour to the north of England, taking views on the way, which he afterwards engraved. He also illustrated Thoroton's ‘Antiquities of Nottinghamshire.’

He died on 28 March 1677, in the seventieth year of his age. We are told by Vertue that there was an execution in his house at the time, ‘of which when he was dying he was sensible enough to desire only to die in his bed, and not to be removed till he was buried.’ He was buried near the north-west corner of the tower of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, but no stone marks the spot. He married a second time in 1665, and by this wife, who survived him many years, left several children. Of Hollar's personal character Aubrey says: ‘He was a very friendly, good-natured man as could be, but shiftless as to the world, and died not rich.’ Evelyn, who also knew him well, tells us that he was ‘a very honest, simple, well-meaning man.’

Of Hollar's prints 2,733 are enumerated in Parthey's account of his works (Berlin, 1853). They embrace a great variety of subjects, including scenes from the bible, historical pictures, maps, portraits of his chief contemporaries, views of cities, flower and fruit pieces, and various illustrations to books. His clever sketches of costume, his views of old London and other cities are invaluable to the historian. His engravings are executed with much spirit and carefully finished. They have steadily risen in value. An exhibition of them was held in London in 1875 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club.

The following are Hollar's more characteristic works: 1. Figures and portraits: ‘Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus’ (1640), 26 plates; ‘Theatrum Mulierum’ (1643), 48 plates; portraits of Charles I and his queen after Vandyck (1649), James, duke of York, at the age of eighteen, Oliver Cromwell, Hobbes (1665) (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 369), Oughtred, Lady Venetia Digby, and his own portrait. 2. Landscapes and buildings: A number of Dutch and German views, including Strassburg, Augsburg, and Stuttgart; Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham, Hull, and Greenwich; six views of Albury, the seat of Arundel; Dutch shipping (1665); tomb of Edward IV at Windsor; view of Richmond Park (1638); plates illustrating Dugdale's ‘St. Paul's;’ the choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor; Antwerp Cathedral; Whitehall, Lambeth, and views of Windsor, and views in and about Tangier (1673). 3. Miscellaneous: ‘Charles and the army quartered at Newcastle on the way to Scotland in 1639;’ ‘Trial of Archbishop