Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/32

 buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Besides Strange's portrait by Greuze, there is a fine portrait by Romney and one by Raeburn in the possession of the family.

Strange's devotion to his art was carried out at the cost both of domestic happiness and of fortune. It involved long absences from his family, and he declined to undertake really remunerative work of a commonplace character, such as book-plates and book illustrations. These he rarely executed except to serve a friend. From some very interesting correspondence between Strange and his friend Bruce of Kinnaird, the African traveller, we learn that he engraved the illustrations for Bruce's work on ‘Pæstum,’ but this was never published. Probably only three book-plates and half a dozen small portrait illustrations, of an early date, are genuine. The classical portraits in Blackwell's ‘History of the Court of Augustus,’ assumed to be his, are unsigned and not otherwise authenticated. His title to fame rests as much on the large share he had in the amelioration of the national taste as on the works which testify to his genius. Advanced modern taste may regret that his choice fell so frequently on paintings of the eclectic school—on Carlo Dolci, Carlo Maratti, or even on Guercino and Guido. His chief achievements are the two splendid series of the Vandycks, ‘Charles I with the Horse’ (issued at 31s. 6d.) and in his robes (issued at 13s., and sold fifty-five years later for 51l. 9s.), and the portraits of the royal children; and of the Titians, e.g. the ‘Venus’ of the Florence Tribune, the ‘Danae,’ and the ‘Venus blinding Cupid’ (issued at 13s.). In the reproduction of Titian he is probably unequalled. Raffaelle, too, is well represented by his ‘St. Cecilia’ and by his ‘Justice’ and ‘Meekness.’ His ‘Madonna della Seggiola,’ of which a careful drawing was made, was never engraved. Correggio is represented by his ‘Day,’ which Strange describes as ‘the first picture in Italy, if not in the world,’ and in which the dazzling lights are probably represented as effectually as could be done by those processes to which Strange always strictly confined himself. Guercino, a favourite painter with Strange, is represented by his ‘Death of Dido,’ and by his ‘Christ appearing to the Madonna,’ where the draperies are thought by some to be Strange's chef d'œuvre.

His own portrait by Greuze fitly prefaces the series of fifty of his principal works on which he desired his fame to rest, and which he had very early in his career begun to set aside for the purpose. Eighty sets of selected impressions of these were accordingly bound in atlas folio, with a dedication to the king (composed mainly by Blair), and were published in 1790. An introduction treats shortly of the progress of engraving and of the author's share in its promotion, with notes on the character of the paintings engraved. He concludes, with characteristic conviction of the merits of his work: ‘Nor can he fear to be charged with vanity, if, in the eve of a life consumed in the study of the arts, he indulges the pride to think that he may, by this monument of his works, secure to his name, while engraving shall last, the praise of having contributed to its credit and advancement.’

Strange, it seems, was the first who habitually employed the dry-point in continuation of his preparation by etching, and in certain modifications of the process he was followed by Morghen, Woollett, and Sharp. He condemns, as having retarded the progress of engraving in England, the process of ‘stippling’ or ‘dotting’ introduced into England by Bartolozzi. He had an equal command of all the methods he practised. His own chief distinguishing characteristics as an engraver are perhaps a certain distinction of style and a pervading harmony of treatment. His lines, pure, firm, and definite, but essentially flowing, lend themselves to the most delicate and rounded contours, from which all outline disappears, and the richness and transparency of his flesh tints, produced without any special appearance of effort, are well shown in his treatment of Guido, and more signally of Titian. On the other hand, he does not perhaps always differentiate the special characteristics of the masters he reproduces. His treatment of skies and clouds—a relic of Le Bas's influence—and of the textures of his draperies is often faulty. He is accused by some critics of inaccurate drawing. His early education in this department was probably defective and unsystematic, but he worked hard at it in later years, and prepared his drawings for engraving with the greatest care. He was a perfect master of the burin, while the extent to which he carried his etched preparation gave great freedom to his style and aided in rendering colour.

As a pure historical line engraver, Strange stands in the very first European rank. Critics so different as Horace Walpole, Smith (Nollekens's biographer), and Leigh Hunt consider him the foremost of his day in England. Some foreign critics, as Longhi, Ferrerio, and Duplessis, are almost equally emphatic; though others, as Le Blanc and still more Beraldi, find much less to admire. His works are to-day more popular in France than in England.