Definition of "limner"

Whether the skies be bright or cloudy,—whether the earth be clothed with flowers, or deformed with tempests,—the art of the limner has surrounded you with ‘a new heaven and a new earth;’ and you may bask in suns that never set, while the heavens are dark to other eyes,—and luxuriate amid landscapes and flowers, while half your fellow-creatures are perishing amid snows and tempests!

1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], page 276

In Sir Henry Meredith's appearance there was nothing that won upon the sight, though the limner had done his best for him. The countenance had no character. But his consort was indeed lovely, like, and yet not like, the daughter who now watched her.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Morality of Diamonds”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 18