Volume 2

A general dictionary of painters; containing memoirs of the lives and work of the most eminent professors of the art of painting, from its revival, by Cimabue, in the year 1250, to the present time / [Ed. by J. Watkins].

  • Pilkington, Matthew, approximately 1700-1774.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general dictionary of painters; containing memoirs of the lives and work of the most eminent professors of the art of painting, from its revival, by Cimabue, in the year 1250, to the present time / [Ed. by J. Watkins]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    636/642 (page 568)
    tionary. He was bom at Dodbrook, in Devonshire, in 1738, and was bred an apothecary, under his uncle, at Fowey, in Cornwall, where he indulged a taste for drawing, and pro- duced several views of romantic scenery in that neighbour- hood. On leaving his uncle he went to Jamaica, and prac- tised there some years as a physician. After his return he settled in the same capacity at Truro, where he discovered the genius of Opie, and became his first instructor. When Opie was sufficiently qualified to paint a portrait, he and the doctor engaged in partnership, and settled at Exeter, where Wolcot exercised his pencil in landscape. From thence the two friends came to London, but a separation soon took place, and while Opie rose rapidly in popularity as a portrait painter, Wolcot gained no less celebrity as a keen caricaturist in verse. His lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians, caustic as they were, exhibited acute powers of criticism. In 1798 he was employed to superintend a new edition of this Dic- tionary, which, instead of improving, he spoiled by intro- ducing splenetic remarks and coarse ribaldry. After this he published a set of views in aquatinta, from his own paintings, one of the best of which was a moon-light piece. He died January 31, 1819, having been deprived of his sight by a cataract for some years previous to his death. AVURSCH, M. This artist was a native of Stanz, in the canton of Underwalden, in Switzerland, and became professor of painting in the academy of Besangon. Several of his pictures are in the abbey of Engelberg, and are much admired for the expression and colouring. He painted historical subjects; but some years before his death he lost his sight, on which he retired to his native place, where, as he was sitting at his door, on the 9th of September, 1798, a body of French troops attacked the place, pushed the old man, then eighty years of age, into his house, which was set fire to, and he perished in the flames. THE END. Printed by Hewlett and Brimmer, 10, Frith Street, Soho.