_Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters_ it is called, among the painters being Sucrewasser of Vienna, and Watersouchy of Amsterdam.

It is 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.