Watersouchy who concerns us, for he was a Dutch figure painter who
carried the art of detail farther than it had been carried before. I
quote a little from Beckford's account of this genius, since it helps
to bring back a day when the one thing most desired by the English
collector was a Dutch picture--still life, boors, cows, ruins, or
domestic interior--no matter what subject or how mechanically painted
so long as it was done minutely enough.

"Whilst he remained at Amsterdam, young Watersouchy was continually
improving, and arrived to such perfection in copying point lace,
that Mierhop entreated his father to cultivate these talents, and to
place his son under the patronage of Gerard Dow, ever renowned for
the exquisite finish of his pieces. Old Watersouchy stared at the
proposal, and solemnly asked his wife, to whose opinion he always
paid a deference, whether painting was a genteel profession for their
son. Mierhop, who overheard their conversation, smiled disdainfully
at the question, and Madam Watersouchy answered, that she believed it
was one of your liberal arts. In few words, the father was persuaded,
and Gerard Dow, then resident at Leyden, prevailed upon to receive
the son as a disciple.

"Our young artist had no sooner his foot within his master's apartment,
than he found every object in harmony with his own disposition. The
colours finely ground, and ranged in the neatest boxes, the pencils
so delicate as to be almost imperceptible, the varnish in elegant
phials, the easel just where it ought to be, filled him with agreeable
sensations, and exalted ideas of his master's merit. Gerard Dow on
his side was equally pleased, when he saw him moving about with all
due circumspection, and noticing his little prettinesses at every
step. He therefore began his pupil's initiation with great alacrity,