or whom she executed some of her
choicest works, and received for them a munificent reward. Though she
exercised her talents to an advanced age, her works are exceedingly
rare, so great was the labor bestowed upon them. She spent seven years
in painting two pictures, a fruit and a flower piece, which she
presented to one of her daughters as a marriage portion. She married
Jurian Pool, an eminent portrait painter, by whom she had ten children;
she is frequently called by his name, though she always signed her
pictures with her maiden name. Smith, in his Catalogue raisonne, vols.
vi. and ix., gives a description of only about thirty pieces by her--a
proof of their extreme rarity. They now command very high prices when
offered for sale, which rarely happens. She died in 1760, aged 86 years.

SIR ANTHONY VANDYCK.

This eminent Flemish painter was born at Antwerp in 1599. His father
early gave him instruction in drawing; he was also instructed by his
mother, who painted landscapes, and was very skillful in embroidery. He
studied afterwards under Henry van Balen, and made rapid progress in the
art; but attracted by the fame of Rubens, he entered the school of that
master, and showed so much ability as to be soon entrusted with the
execution of some of his instructor's designs. Some writers, among whom
D'Argenville was the first, assert that Rubens became jealous of
Vandyck's growing excellence, and therefore advised him to devote
himself to portrait painting; assigning the following anecdote as the
cause of his jealousy. During the short absences of Rubens from his
house, for the purpose of recreation, his disciples frequently obtained
access to his studio, by means of bribing an old servant who kept the
keys; and on one of these occasions, while they were all eagerly
pressing forward to view the great picture of the Descent from the Cross
(although later investigations concerning dates seem to indicate that it
was some other picture), Diepenbeck accidentally fell against the
canvas, effacing the face of the Virgin, and the Magdalen's arm, which
had just been finished, and were not yet dry. Fearful of expulsion from
the school, the terrified pupils chose Vandyck to restore the work, and
he completed it the same day with such success that Rubens did not at
first perceive the change, and afterwards concluded not to alter it.
Walpole entertains a different and more rational view respecting
Rubens' supposed jealousy: he