_Dandridge the Painter._--At Osterley Park (Lord Jersey's) is the only
example of the pencil of Dandridge, bearing his signature and the date
1741.
Through neglect and the effect of time this able work has been dried up, so
that we may say--
"The wine of life is drawn, and nothing
Left but the mere lees:"
but there's savour of merit and signs of goodly craft for the dark age of
its birth. In the group of three children of life-size we have a rare work
of the period when few men of genius wielded the brush or daubed canvas,
even through the inspiring patronage of a wealthy banker, whose progeny
they are--and this is executed too before academies and societies offered
their fostering aid, and when Hogarth struggled on probably side by side
with Dandridge. Some of your readers may have traces of him and of his
works, and may be able to trace his memory to the grave. All that Walpole
has of him is (p. 439.):
"Son of a house painter; had great business from his felicity in taking
a likeness. He sometimes painted small conversations, but died in the
vigour of his age."