lf and his
sitters; he is always more interested in that part of them which
conforms to some great central human type, and is comparatively
uninterested in those little distinctions which delight the caricaturist
and are the essence of that much applauded quality, "the catching of a
likeness." I don't believe he was a very good catcher of likenesses, but
I am sure his rendering was the biggest and fullest side of that
man--there is always a fine ironical appreciation of character moulded
by circumstance; whereas in Velasquez I find the other thing.

_C. W. Furse._

CLXXI

I have wished to oblige the beholder, on looking at the portrait, to
think wholly of the face in front of him, and nothing of the man who
painted it. And it is my opinion that the artist who paints portraits in
this way need have no fear of the pitfall of _mannerism_ either in
treatment or touch.

_Watts._

CLXXII

Let us ... examine modern portraits. I shut my eyes and think of those
full lengths in the New Gallery and the Academy, which I have not seen
this year, but whose every detail is familiar to me. You will find that
a uniform light stretches from their chins to their toes; in all
probability the background is a slab of grey into whose insensitive
surface neither light nor air penetrates; or perhaps that most offensive
portrait-painter's property, a sham room in which none of the furniture
has been seen in its proper relation of light to the face, but has been
muzzed in with slippery insincerity, and with an amiable hope that it
may take its place behind the figure. The face, in all but one or two
portraits, will lack definition of plane--will be flat and flabby. A
white spot on the nose and high light on the forehead will serve for
modelling; little or no attempt will have been made to get a light which
will help the observer to concentrate on the head, or give the head its
full measure of rotundity--your eyes will wander aimlessly from cheek to
chiffon, from glinting satin to the pattern on the floor, forgetful of
the purpose of the portrait, and only arrested by some dab of pink or
mauve, which will remind you that the artist is developing a somewhat
irrelevant colour scheme.

For solidity, for the realisation of the great constructive planes of
things, for that element of sculpture which exists in all good painting,
you will look in vain. I am sure that in an average Academy there are
not three real attempts to get the values-