BISCHOP, or BISKOP, (John de), an excellent artist, born at the Hague in 1646. He is spoken of with great commendation as a painter, and his drawings from the great masters are held in the highest estimation by the curious. In these he has succeeded so happily, as to preserve with the greatest exactness the style of the painter whose pictures he copied. But as an engraver he is most generally known; and his works are numerous. They are chiefly etchings, harmonized with the graver; and though slight, yet free, spirited, and pleasing. He gives a richness to the colour, and a roundness to the figures, far beyond what is usually done with the point, so little assisted by the graver. His figures in general are well drawn; but in a mannered, rather than a correct, style. The extremities indeed are not always well marked, or his heads equally expressive or beautiful. It is said of him, that he owed his excellency to his own genius alone, having never studied under any master by whose instruction he might have been benefited. He worked chiefly at Amsterdam, where he died in 1686, aged 40 years.