ARNOULD, or AART VANDER, "the prince of moonlight painters," was born at Amsterdam in 1619. His paintings soon became remarkable for their fidelity to nature, and for their calm poetical tone. He excelled in representing winter scenes; but his favourite subject was the moon shedding down her silver light upon a sleeping hamlet, in the midst of a few trees on the bank of a smooth-flowing river. These moonlight pieces are found all over Europe, and are marked by a monogram, consisting of A.V.D.N. Neer died in 1683.

EGLON HENDRIK VANDER, an eminent artist, was the son of the preceding, and was born at Amsterdam in 1643. His first lessons in painting were received from his father. He then became the pupil of Jacob Vanloo, and about the age of twenty followed his teacher to Paris. His principal studies, however, seem to have been the masterpieces of Gaspar Netscher, William Mieris, and Terburg. It was soon apparent that he had caught some of the several excellencies of these famous artists. A more striking feature of his pictures, however, was an elaborateness in detail. On every kind of subject which he painted he employed the careful and minute attention of one who strives to build his reputation on a few highly-finished masterpieces. His pictures of conversational parties are crowded with the most splendid accessories; and owing to the excessive finish of his trees and flowers, his historical pieces ought to be called landscapes, and his landscapes ought to be called garden pieces. Neer died in 1703, at the court of the elector-palatine at Düsseldorf. Specimens of his paintings are to be seen in the Bridgewater collection, and in the collections of Mr Hope and the Marquis of Bute.