or BERCHEN, NICHOLAS, an excellent painter, was a native of Haerlem, and born in 1624. He received instructions from several very eminent masters; and it was no small addition to their fame that Berchem was their scholar. The charming pictures of cattle and figures by this admirable master are justly held in the highest estimation. He has been singularly happy in having many of them finely engraved by John Visscher, an artist of the first rank. Berchem had an easy expeditious manner of painting, and an inexplicable variety and beauty in the choice of sites for his landscapes; executing them with a surprising degree of neatness and truth. He possessed a clearness and strength of judgment, and a wonderful power and ease in expressing his ideas; and although his subjects were of the lower kind, yet his choice of nature was judicious, and he gave to every subject as much of beauty and elegance as it would admit. The leafing of his trees is exquisitely and freely touched; his skies are clear; and his clouds float lightly, as if supported by air. The distinguishing characters of the pictures of Berchem are, the breadth and just distribution