ADRIAN VAN, an eminent Dutch painter, was born at Lubeck in 1610. He was a disciple of Francis Hals, in whose school Brouwer was contemporary with him, and in it they contracted an intimate friendship. The subjects of his pencil were always of a low kind; he had nearly the same ideas as Teniers, and diverted himself with clowns and drunkards in stables, ale-houses, and kitchens. His pictures are so transparent and highly finished that they have the polish and lustre of enamel. They have frequently a force superior to Teniers; yet it were to be wished that he had not designed his figures so short. Of the Dutch masters he is perhaps the one who best understood the chiaro oscuro; and he was often employed to paint figures for the best landscape painters among his countrymen. He died in 1685. His works, especially those of his best time and manner, are very scarce; and hence, when they can be purchased, no price is thought too much for them. His prints etched by himself, large and small, consist of fifty-four pieces.