with
her hair flowing in the wind! I must take this sketch, I positively must
now, and show it to Landseer." And the courtly artist daintily enveloped
the drawing in a sheet of paper, put it away in his hat, and vowed
subsequently that the great painter had been delighted with the young
man's performance. Smee was not only charmed with Clive's skill as an
artist, but thought his head would be an admirable one to paint. Such
a rich complexion, such fine turns in his hair! such eyes! to see real
blue eyes was so rare nowadays! And the Colonel too, if the Colonel
would but give him a few sittings, the grey uniform of the Bengal
Cavalry, the silver lace, the little bit of red ribbon just to warm up
the picture! it was seldom, Mr. Smee declared, that an artist could
get such an opportunity for colour. With our hideous vermilion uniforms
there was no chance of doing anything; Rubens himself could scarcely
manage scarlet. Look at the horseman in Cuyp's famous picture at the
Louvre: the red was a positive blot upon the whole picture. There was
nothing like French grey and silver! All which did not prevent Mr. Smee
from painting Sir Brian in a flaring deputy-lieutenant's uniform, and
entreating all military men whom he met to sit to him in scarlet.
Clive Newcome the Academician succeeded in painting, of course for mere
friendship's sake, and because he liked the subject, though he could
not refuse the cheque which Colonel Newcome sent him for the frame and
picture; but no cajoleries could induce the old campaigner to sit to any
artist save one. He said he should be ashamed to pay fifty guineas for
the likeness of his homely face; he jocularly proposed to James Binnie
to have his head put on the canvas, and Mr. Smee enthusiastically caught
at the idea; but honest James winked his droll eyes, saying his was a
beauty that did not want any paint; and when Mr. Smee took his leave
after dinner in Fitzroy Square, where this conversation was held, James
Binnie hinted that the Academician was no better than an old humbug, in
which surmise he was probably not altogether incorrect. Certain young
men who frequented the kind Colonel's house were also somewhat of this
opinion; and made endless jokes at the painter's expense. Smee plastered
his sitters with adulation as methodically as he covered his canvas. He
waylaid gentlemen at dinner; he inveigled unsuspecting folks into his
studio, and had their heads off their shoulders before they were