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Philip James de Loutherbourg

Philip James de Loutherbourg was born at Strasburg about the year 1734. He was the son of a miniature painter, who afterwards established himself at Paris, where his son was placed under the tuition of Francesco Casanova, and on leaving the school of that master became a very popular painter of battles, huntings, sea-pieces, and landscapes, with figures and cattle, in which last he at that time appears to have imitated the charming style of Nicholas Berghem. His works were universally admired, and in 1763 he was made a member of the Academy of Painting at Paris. Though he met with very flattering encouragement, he soon afterwards quitted France, and settled in London, where he passed the remainder of his life. Soon after his arrival in England he was employed to make the designs for the scenes and decorations of Drury Lane Theatre, and in that province of the art he discovered extraordinary ability for several years.

Besides a great variety of easel pictures, which were generally esteemed, Mr. de Loutherbourg occasionally employed his talents on a larger scale, in commemoration of the most remarkable events of the time, and of the achievements of British valour. Among these, perhaps the most popular were his pictures of the Review of Warley Camp, now in the King's collection, Lord Howe's Victory of the First of June, and the Siege of Valenciennes.

— Michael Bryan, Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. London: H.G. Bohn, 1849.