ROUSSEAU, JAMES, an eminent French painter, was born at Paris in the year 1630. He studied first under Swanvelt, who had married one of his relations; after which he improved himself by travelling into Italy, practising solely perspective, architecture, and landscape. On his return home, he was employed at Mariy. He distinguished himself very much in painting buildings, and by his knowledge of, and his attention to, the principles of perspective. Louis XIV. employed him to decorate his hall of devices at St Germain-en-Laye, where he represented the operas of Lulli; but being a Protestant, he quitted France on the persecution of his brethren, and retired to Switzerland. Louis invited him back. He refused, but sent his designs, and recommended a proper person to execute them. After a short stay in Switzerland, he went to Holland, whence he was invited to England by Ralph duke of Montague, to adorn his new house in Bloomsbury. Here he painted a great deal. Some of his pictures, both in landscape and architecture, are over doors at Hampton Court; and he etched several of his own designs. His perspectives, having been most commonly applied to decorate courts or gardens, have suffered much from the weather. Such of them as re-
main are monuments of an excellent genius. The colours Rousseau are bright and durable, and the choice of them most judicious. He died in Soho Square about the year 1694, at the age of sixty-four.