y face has
expression of a far more interesting and enduring kind than these
momentary disturbances of its form occasioned by laughter or some
passing thought, &c. And it must never be forgotten that a portrait is a
panel painted to remain for centuries without movement. So that a large
amount of the quality of repose must enter into its composition.
Portraits in which this has not been borne in mind, however entertaining
at a picture exhibition, when they are seen for a few moments only, pall
on one if constantly seen, and are finally very irritating.

But the real expression in a head is something more enduring than these
passing movements: one that belongs to the forms of a head, and the
marks left on that form by the life and character of the person. This is
of far more interest than those passing expressions, the results of the
contraction of certain muscles under the skin, the effect of which is
very similar in most people. It is for the portrait painter to find this
more enduring expression and give it noble expression in his work.

[Sidenote: Treatment of Clothes.]

It is a common idea among sitters that if they are painted in modern
clothes the picture will look old-fashioned in a few years. If the
sitter's appearance were fixed upon the canvas exactly as they stood
before the artist in his studio, without any selection on the part of
the painter, this might be the result, and _is_ the result in the case
of painters who have no higher aim than this.

But there are qualities in dress that do not belong exclusively to the
particular period of their fashion. Qualities that are the same in all
ages. And when these are insisted upon, and the frivolities of the
moment in dress not troubled about so much, the portrait has a permanent
quality, and will never in consequence look old-fashioned in the
offensive way that is usually meant. In the first place, the drapery and
stuffs of which clothes are made follow laws in the manner in which they
fold and drape over the figure, that are the same in all times. If the
expression of the figure through the draperies is sought by the painter,
a permanent quality will be given in his work, whatever fantastic shapes
the cut of the garments may assume.

And further, the artist does not take whatever comes to hand in the
appearance of his sitter, but works to a thought-out arrangement of
colour and form, to a design. This he selects from the moving and varied
appearance of his