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PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 ON 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING 
 
 SlhistraM btj diatnpks 
 
 FROM THE WORKS OF VANDYKE AND OTHER MASTERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN BURNET, F.R.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 “ LETTERS ON LANDSCAPE PAINTING,” “ REMBRANDT AND HIS WORKS,” 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 DAVID BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET. 
 
 MDCCCL. 
 

PREFACE. 
 
 This work on Portrait Painting originated in an Essay on the beauty and 
 character of the human countenance, from which, in the body of the present 
 treatise, many of the thoughts and arrangements are taken and engrafted. 
 I found, however, that the original work, from being long under my hand, 
 had grown to too great an extent for a single volume, therefore determined 
 to abridge it, and confine my labours in the present instance to the single 
 subject of Portrait Painting — intending to commence with examples from 
 the works of Raffaelle and Titian ; but, on reflection, decided upon taking 
 the illustrations from artists more coeval with our own times and present 
 practice — recollecting an observation of Sir Joshua Reynolds, “that, all 
 things considered, Vandyke must be acknowledged the greatest portrait- 
 painter that ever existed.” 
 
 No branch of the fine arts has met with greater encouragement in 
 England than portrait painting, nor has portraiture flourished to the same 
 extent in any other country. Much of the taste now existing for this 
 species of painting has, no doubt, arisen from Vandyke’s residence amongst 
 us ; for although the pictures of Holbein possess a certain intrinsic value, 
 from their careful resemblance to the originals, yet as works embodying 
 the pictorial qualities of chiaroscuro and colour, they have feeble preten- 
 sions to be considered as compositions upon which the harmonious prin- 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ciples of portrait beauty can be based. To Vandyke alone we are therefore 
 indebted for the power of extending this arrangement through a variety of 
 changes in the character and costume of the people of Great Britain. For 
 a time it was continued by the servile imitations of Lely and Kneller; 
 but the theory not being understood, it gradually sunk and died away 
 into the puerile and vulgar representations of Jervas and Hudson. The 
 inquiring mind of Keynolds searched into the principles which regulate 
 pictorial beauty, with effective light and shade, and not only revived the 
 expiring embers, but added a glow of rich colour unknown in England 
 before his time. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PLATE I REYNOLDS Facing page 14 
 
 — II ANTIQUE 15 
 
 — Ill NATURE 17 
 
 — IV VANDYKE 18 
 
 — V VANDYKE 19 
 
 _ VI VANDYKE Facing Title. 
 
 — VII VELASQUEZ 23 
 
 — VIII VELASQUEZ 27 
 
 — IX VELASQUEZ 33 
 
 — X VANDYKE 34 
 
 — XI VARIOUS 36 
 
 — XII 
 
 VANDYKE 
 
 43 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 The leading characteristic of Portrait Painting is certainly the likeness: the 
 historical painter gives the general character of man — the portrait painter 
 the individual character; but, as every man is more or less defective, 
 according as men depart from the general standard, this general standard 
 ought to be defined, that we may perceive at a glance where the varia- 
 tions lie, and treat them accordingly, not by obliterating such departure, 
 but by modifying it, and thus ennobling the character by refining both 
 on the form and colour. Studying antique statues 1 enables us to 
 accomplish the one ; and examining carefully the best pictures of the great 
 colourists serves as a guide in directing us towards a knowledge of the 
 other. He who attempts either without the requisite study is like one who 
 goes into a foreign country without a chart. Alexander would never sit 
 for his portrait to any one but Apelles, who knew how to ennoble the likeness ; 
 whilst Cromwell desired Sir Peter Lely to represent all his warts and ex- 
 crescences. A very little practice will soon convince an artist that most of 
 his sitters will be actuated by the feelings of Alexander rather than by 
 those of the stern Protector of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Sir David Wilkie, in his remarks upon portrait painting, speaking 
 of the deviations often necessary for an artist to make, says — “ In the 
 example of the human head, without attempting to generalise, so far as to 
 
2 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 make it the beau ideal of the class to which it belongs, there is yet in every 
 head certain untoward shapes, spaces too vacant or too much divided, or 
 certain lines which, for harmonious arrangement, require to be assimilated 
 in their direction, which the practice of every draughtsman will at once 
 correct; and this sort of treatment or accommodation is common to all 
 heads, more or less, of the most perfect kind which nature can supply. In 
 reflecting on individual character, Sir Thomas Lawrence used to say, that 
 even in the majestic head of Mrs. Siddons there were parts and forms which 
 did not appear to belong to Mrs. Siddons, and should therefore be omitted 
 in her portrait. To every head where character as well as resemblance is 
 required, the same remark will apply. Not only may accidents be softened 
 down, or left out, but a due distinction should be made between what is 
 permanent and fixed, and parts liable to continual alteration and change. 
 The eyes, the nose, the mouth, require to be given with a force due to their 
 pre-eminence; while the dimples on the cheek of youth and the wrinkles 
 on the brow of age should not be given with the force of life, but with 
 such delicacy as fleeting and evanescent nature requires. The question, 
 however, will be, how far this deviation from actual appearances may be 
 allowed ; for it may be said, can anything be a better representation of a 
 man than the transcript of himself, or can it be a better likeness by being 
 unlike the man? In regard to actual resemblance, there are those whom 
 nothing will satisfy but a real, striking, startling likeness — a something which 
 a child might not only know, but mistake for the reality. Those who demand 
 such proof from art may find it in the merest daub, in the harshest carica- 
 ture, but will look for it in vain in the finest pictures.” Now, although this 
 extract contains much correct reasoning, I cannot refrain from putting the 
 student on his guard, lest he should generalise too much, and leave out those 
 connecting links in the features on which expression so much depends, and 
 which even a flattering likeness mainly rests upon. In continuation, Wilkie 
 remarks — “ Of all judges, the most difficult to satisfy, and whose opinion 
 there seems the least reason to doubt or question, are the family and the 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 3 
 
 relatives of the person whose portrait has been painted. They, more than 
 all others, must know the original best; and, knowing this, it would seem 
 vain to doubt but that they must distinguish what is like or unlike. It is 
 indeed not the knowledge, but the taste of such persons that should make 
 us hesitate to alter what they say should be altered, and obey their judg- 
 ment to the full in this matter.” And here it may be safely noticed, that 
 the moment the artist gives up the guidance of his pencil to another, he not 
 only incurs the risk of spoiling his picture as a work of value, but runs a 
 great chance of destroying the resemblance. “As a work of art must 
 every portrait be tried : without such merit it loses not merely a part of its 
 fancied beauty and attraction, but what, in one sense, is of more consequence, 
 it loses its utility, it loses all that it should represent to future times, and 
 should save it too from early neglect and oblivion.” “ Its value as a work of 
 art will preserve the resemblance of the homeliest woman and the poorest 
 individual, while any trace of the most famous hero, the most beautiful 
 woman, and the most august sovereign, will be swept by time from the 
 memory of man, if the age in which they flourished fails to have kept a 
 portrait of them sufficiently valuable to be worth preserving.” It was 
 asked by a lady how it was that the portraits of celebrated people painted 
 by the Jervases, Hudsons, and others, were no longer to be seen. Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds replied, “ Because, madam, they are all up in the garrets.” 
 
 That likeness does not depend upon detail may be proved by our instant 
 recognition of any one of our friends, even across the street, where scarcely 
 a feature can be defined. Likeness will be found to lie more in the general 
 form, and the masses of dark and half-tints : and the eye taking in the whole 
 figure at the same time assists the imagination in completing the resem- 
 blance. This is one great reason that ought to make us cautious in losing 
 the peculiarity of the outward form, both in the head and contour of 
 the figure. 
 
 The extreme darks, and their exact distance from each other, are greatly 
 conducive to likeness, as also marking the points where high lights fall, par- 
 
4 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 ticularly on the forehead, nose, and cheekbone. I have seen many first 
 sittings where these were happily put in, more like than when the picture 
 was finished. In finishing, the essential parts too often lose their ascen- 
 dancy, and the introduction of the detail is given with too great severity ; 
 hence the breadth is destroyed, and the whole being in this way too much 
 defined, the countenance loses the life-like and moving character of nature. 
 This is frequently the cause why a sketch captivates more than the most 
 laboured work : rapidity of handling and looseness of touch — such as we see 
 in the pictures of Rubens, where the lines and colours flow into each other 
 — contribute to this attractive quality. The small pictures by Vandyke 
 possess this property also in a high degree. Nevertheless, it must be ad- 
 mitted that expression contributes more than any other means to give ani- 
 mation and an attractive character to the likeness, whether manly dignity 
 or feminine softness ; without expression, the features, though quite correct 
 and carefully rendered, will be found lifeless and fixed. This one great 
 charm in portrait painting can be only caught at a moment when the sitter 
 is off his guard, or not fatigued and weary from keeping the head in one 
 position. The seat of sweet, soft, feminine character lies in the outer corner 
 of the eyes, especially the lower eyelid, and the corners of the mouth : this 
 the painter should catch, towards completion, with a few delicate touches. 
 Dignity lies in the under-lip and chin, and the upper orbit of the eye and 
 forehead : to give the one without a simper, and the other without a frown, 
 requires the nicest feeling of the artist. 
 
 Another necessary adjunct to a refined likeness is a truth in the colour, 
 having the tone of flesh, and all its suppleness of appearance. In variety 
 of tint, it must possess a uniformity, and in a mixture of soft and sharp 
 touches, a proper balance. This truth in the colour is, perhaps, the most 
 difficult part of the work to achieve, and can only be acquired by a keen 
 observation of the best pictures, and an eye and hand educated by much 
 practice. The later works of Titian, Rubens, and Velasquez, and the earlier 
 works of Vandyke, are filled with this fascinating property; nor should the 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 5 
 
 portraits of Rembrandt be omitted, for whatever may be defective in 
 form or expression, the flesh is of the most natural tone, possessing all the 
 character of real life. 
 
 Without going into the history of portrait painting, it may be of ser- 
 vice, both to the painter and his sitters, to give a short sketch of what has 
 been achieved by the founders of this department of the art, that when we 
 investigate the subject more practically, the principles may become more 
 evident. To Titian, the father of portrait painting, we must look for most 
 of those qualities which ennoble and dignify the subject — simple and un- 
 affected air of the figure, grandeur in the contour, and the greatest breadth 
 both in the light and shade, and colour. Opie, in his lecture on Colouring, 
 speaking of Titian, says, “ Like Michael Angelo in design, Titian in colour- 
 ing may be regarded as the father of modern art. He first discovered and 
 unfolded all its charms, saw the true end of imitation, showed what to 
 aim at and where to stop, and united breadth and softness to the proper 
 degree of finishing. He first dared its depths, contrasted all its oppositions, 
 and taught colour to glow and palpitate with all the warmth and tenderness 
 of real life. Free from tiresome detail or disgusting minutite, he rendered the 
 roses and lilies of youth the more ensanguined brown of manhood, and the 
 pallid coldness of age with truth and precision; and to every material object, 
 hard or soft, rough or smooth, bright or obscure, opaque or transparent, his 
 pencil imparted its true quality and appearance to the eye, -with all the 
 force and harmony of light, shade, middle-tint, and reflection, by which he 
 so relieved, rounded, and connected the whole, that we are almost irre- 
 sistibly tempted to apply the test of another sense, and exclaim — 
 
 “ Art thou not, pleasing vision ! 
 
 Sensible to feeling as to sight V' 
 
 At an early period he mounted the throne of portrait painting, where, in 
 the opinion of many, he still keeps his seat unshaken, notwithstanding the 
 violent attacks made on him at different periods by V andyke, Rembrandt, 
 and Reynolds. He combines resemblance with dignity, costume with taste, 
 
6 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 and art with simplicity , and equally delights the physiognomist, the artist, 
 the antiquary, and the connoisseur. 
 
 “To him we are in some measure indebted for the daring vivacity of 
 Tintoretto, the freshness of Veronese, the strength of Carracci, the glowing 
 splendour of Rubens, the truth of Rembrandt, and the taste of Vandyke. 
 Justly, therefore, was it said of him by Michael Angelo, that had he been 
 a correct designer he would have been the first painter that ever lived. 
 Titian, like his contemporaries, began his career by merely copying nature 
 as she happened to present herself, without choice or selection, and laboured 
 for a time in the labyrinth of littleness, meanness, and deformity ; but a 
 hint from Giorgione soon taught him that taste was as requisite as in- 
 dustry ; that labour might be misapplied, and truth itself become uninterest- 
 ing, unnatural, and disgusting; that hairs, pores, pimples, warts, stains, 
 freckles, and all the train of nauseous minutiae on which inferior artists waste 
 their puny powers, are incompatible with the true end of imitation ; that the 
 detail must be sunk in the essential and predominant qualities of bodies; 
 and that the business of painting, like that of poetry, is not to give a feeble 
 catalogue of particulars, but a characteristic, comprehensive, and animated 
 impression of the whole.’" 
 
 This extract certainly contains the true philosophy of the art, and 
 ought to be kept constantly in mind ; nevertheless, it is indispensable for 
 an artist to go through a certain course of correct imitation, that he may 
 acquire a correctness of eye, and a clear knowledge of the natural pro- 
 perties of bodies; and notwithstanding the existence of Titian’s works as 
 examples, all great portrait painters and colourists exhibit in their earlier 
 pictures a severity and dryness ; and it is from this course of preparatory 
 study we are indebted to the force and freedom in the later works of Rubens 
 and Velasquez. Another quality to which portraiture is indebted for its 
 ennobling quality — is sentiment, and the power of giving the inward 
 thoughts of the person represented — a representation of the mind : this it 
 is that places the artist in the ranks of the historical painter. 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 7 
 
 Fuseli, whilst placing the painter of portraits in a lower grade than the 
 painter of negative subjects, guards himself from including portraiture in its 
 higher achievements. In his lecture on Invention, he observes, “ The next 
 place to representation of pomp among negative subjects, but far below, we 
 assign to portrait. Not that characteristic portrait by which Silanion, in the 
 face of Apollodorus, personified habitual indignation ; Apelles, in Alexander, 
 superhuman ambition; Raphael, in Julio II., pontifical firmness; Titian, in 
 Paul III., testy age with priestly subtilty; and in Machiavelli and Caesar 
 Borgia, the wily features of conspiracy and treason. Not that portrait by 
 which Rubens contrasted the physiognomy of philosophic and classic acute- 
 ness with that of genius, in the conversation piece of Grotius, Mursius and 
 himself. Not the nice and delicate discriminations of Vandyke, nor that 
 power which, in our days, substantiated humour in Sterne, comedy in Garrick, 
 and mental and corporeal strife, to use his own words, in Samuel Johnson. 
 On that broad basis portrait takes its exalted place between History and the 
 Drama. The portrait I mean is common — one as widely spread as con- 
 fined in its principle ; the remembrancer of insignificance ; mere human 
 resemblance in attitude without action, features without meaning, dress 
 without drapery, and situation without propriety. The aim of the artist 
 and the sitter’s wish are confined to external likeness ; that deeper, nobler 
 aim — the personification of character — is neither required, nor, if obtained, 
 recognised. The better artist condemned to this task can here only dis- 
 tinguish himself from his duller brethren by execution — by invoking the 
 assistance of background, chiaroscuro, and picturesque effects, and leaves 
 us, whilst we lament the misapplication, with a strong impression of his 
 power : 1dm we see not ; the insignificant individual that usurps the centre 
 one we never saw — care not if we never see; and if we do, remember not, 
 for his head can personify nothing but his opulence or his pretence : it is 
 furniture.” 
 
 These are strong remarks, and severe criticism, but we must make some 
 allowance for the chagrin of an historical painter, such as Fuseli, when the 
 
8 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 whole tide of patronage had set in, carrying portrait painting triumph- 
 antly over every other branch of the art. We hear remarks similar made 
 every year of our exhibitions by the public at large, who cry out against 
 the multitude of portraits that create no interest to the investigation of 
 pictures on the Academy walls. The question is, how is this state of 
 things to be ameliorated? People of notoriety spring up but seldom; and 
 it ought to be remembered, as has been said before, that painting, once the 
 privileged right of sovereigns and men of eminence, from the spread of 
 wealth in this country, has been called into request by every one who can 
 afford to pay for his portrait. To prevent such works finding their way up 
 into the garret, requires an artist of sufficient genius to give them a money 
 value, or by improving upon the original, give his descendants a pride in 
 preserving the copy. It is said by many that we “ are fallen on evil 
 times,” when even Vandyke could make nothing of the scanty costume; but 
 the human head is still left in all its character, and female loveliness 
 yields nothing to the beauty of her ancestors. Reynolds had to struggle 
 with the most untoward forms in the head-dresses of his ladies, yet he had 
 the talent to conquer the most towering bulwarks of powder and pomatum. 
 Many artists paint to please their sitters or their relations, and give up the 
 guidance of the palette out of their own hands. W e must, however, wait for 
 the reflux of the tide of taste, and in the meantime persevere, that we may 
 not lose what has been gained for us by way of examples. We have seen 
 the gradual declension of the arts from the time of Vandyke to the appear- 
 ance of Reynolds. Do not let us witness the same declension from his time 
 to the same extent. Every student ought to endeavour, by his study and 
 perseverance, to keep from the chance of decay the branch of art to 
 which he is devoted. 
 
 Barry, in his lecture upon colour, pays a high tribute to the talent of 
 Reynolds, who raised the art out of the state of imbecility into which it had 
 declined in England. He says — “ A just attention to the admirable prin- 
 ciples of chiaroscuro and colouring discoverable in the fine works of Titian, 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 9 
 
 Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vandyke, must more than anything lead us to reflect 
 upon the great loss this Academy has sustained by the death of its illustrious 
 president. In this very important part of the art, Sir J oshua was singularly 
 excellent, and we might call to our recollection many of his works which 
 have been exhibited on these walls, and which may be ranked with the 
 finest examples of colouring and chiaroscuro. For a great part of his life he 
 was continually employed in painting portraits, undoubtedly because there 
 was no demand in the country for anything else, as the public taste had 
 been formed to this by the long line of Hudsons, Highmores, Jervases, and 
 Knellers who had preceded him, and whose works sufficiently testify from 
 what a wretched state Sir Joshua raised this branch of the art, and how 
 vigorous, graceful, and interesting it became by the masterly way in which 
 he treated it. In many of Titian’s portraits the head and hands are mere 
 staring lightish spots, unconnected with either the drapery or background, 
 which are sometimes too dark, and mere obscure nothings; and in Lely, 
 and even Vandyke, we sometimes meet with the other extremity, of too 
 little solidity, too much flickering and washiness. Sir Joshua’s object 
 appears to have been to obtain the vigour and solidity of the one, and the 
 bustle and spirit of the other, without the excesses of either ; and in by far 
 the greatest number of his portraits he has admirably succeeded. 
 
 “ His portrait of Mrs. Siddons is, both for the ideal and executive, the 
 finest picture of the kind, perhaps, in the world. Indeed, it is something 
 more than a portrait, and may serve to give an excellent idea of what an 
 enthusiastic mind is apt to conceive of those pictures of confined history, 
 for which Apelles was so celebrated by the ancient writers. But this 
 picture of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse was painted not long since, 
 when much of his attention had been turned to history. And it is highly 
 probable that the picture of Lord Heathfield, the glorious defender of 
 Gibraltar, would have been of equal importance, had it been a whole length ; 
 but even as it is there is great animation and spirit, happily adapted to the 
 indications of the tremendous scene around him, and to the admirable 
 
10 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 circumstance of the key of the fortress firmly grasped in his hands, than 
 which imagination cannot conceive anything more ingenious and heroically 
 characteristic.” 
 
 In Barry’s enthusiasm and anxiety to elevate Reynolds, he depreciates 
 the backgrounds of Titian and Vandyke. The backgrounds of Vandyke 
 are never washy ; on the contrary, his figure is frequently too much lost in 
 the ground ; and when the hands of Titian’s portraits would have interfered 
 with the head, he generally covers them with gloves of a low tone — as is 
 often the case with Velasquez, especially in his out-door portraits. 
 Rembrandt seems to have been the model Sir Joshua took for his rich 
 backgrounds, and also the tone of colour, and perhaps without his being- 
 aware of the great impression the works of Velasquez must have made upon 
 him. Let me add that the works of Velasquez seem more congenial to the 
 English taste than even Vandyke’s, possessing more firmness and freshness. 
 
 Wilkie, in a letter to Sir Thomas Lawrence, from Madrid, writes — 
 “ These two great painters (viz., Murillo and Velasquez) are remarkable 
 for having lived in the same time, in the same school, painted from the 
 same people, and yet to have formed two styles so different and opposite, 
 that the most unlearned can scarcely mistake them — Murillo being all 
 softness, while Velasquez is all sparkle and vivacity. To our English tastes 
 it is unnecessary to advocate the style of Velasquez. I know not if the 
 remark be new, but we appear as if identified with him ; and while I am in 
 the two galleries at the museum, half filled with his works, I can almost 
 fancy myself among English pictures. Sir Joshua, Romney, and Raeburn, 
 whether from imitation or instinct, seem powerfully imbued with his style ; 
 and some of our own time, even to our landscape painters, seem to possess 
 the same affinity. Nothing can be more captivating than the examples of 
 his manner of painting here. The portraits, equestrian and otherwise, of 
 Philip the Third and Fifth, the Duke d’Olivarez, and the little infante 
 Balthasar, with various portraits of children, decked out in the most fanciful 
 and grotesque manner, are of the happiest effect ; and such is his taste for 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 11 
 
 the varieties of character, that there are here six portraits of dwarfs painted 
 as if they were his most favourite subjects.” Also, in his journal at Madrid, 
 Sir David Wilkie mentions Velasquez, and calls him “ Teniers on a large 
 scale.” His handling is of the most sparkling kind, owing much of its 
 dazzling effect to the flatness of the ground it is placed upon. 
 
 The picture by Velasquez of children in grotesque dresses in his painting- 
 room is a surprising piece of handling. Still Velasquez would gain, and 
 indeed does gain, when he glazes his pictures. He makes no use of his ground ; 
 lights and shadows are opaque — chilliness and blackness are sometimes the 
 result, and often a cold blue or green prevails, requiring all his brilliancy of 
 touch and truth of effect to make tolerable. Velasquez, however, may be said 
 to be the origin of what is now doing in England. His feeling has been 
 caught almost without seeing his works, which seem to anticipate much 
 that Reynolds, Romney, Raeburn, Jackson, and even Sir Thomas Law- 
 rence have since accomplished. Perhaps he does at once, what others do 
 by repeated touches. It may be truly said, that “ whensoever Velasquez 
 is admired, the paintings of England must be acknowledged and admired 
 with him.” 
 
 While I am on the subject of Velasquez, I must add another extract 
 from Wilkie’s letters ; it is to the late Alexander Nasmyth, who was the father 
 of the present school of landscape painting in Scotland, and intimately 
 acquainted with Raeburn and his works : it is dated from Seville. He says : 
 
 “ It is impossible to describe to you the impression Velasquez, here in 
 the ascendant, makes upon the eye of the artist, by the boldness and dex- 
 terity of his pencil. To the British artist he is more captivating than to 
 any other, for it is he we must try to follow. From Reynolds to the pre- 
 sent time, the principles of Velasquez have, unconsciously perhaps, been 
 the leading-star of our schools. My friends in London have ever been 
 proud of the sympathy which exists between their works and those of this 
 truly philosophical Spanish painter. I have also remarked, that our 
 departed friend Raeburn was strongly possessed with this spirit, which, con- 
 
 c 2 
 
12 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 sidering how rare the works of Velasquez are, looks like inspiration. There 
 are some heads of his in Madrid, which, were they in Edinburgh, would be 
 thought to be by Raeburn ; and I have seen a portrait of Lord Glenlee, I 
 think by Raeburn, which would, in Madrid, be thought a near approach to 
 Velasquez.” 
 
 I cannot refrain from adding my testimony to the truth of this obser- 
 vation ; for, some time since, in company with my late friend, Mr. William 
 Simson, of Edinburgh, on viewing a picture by V elasquez, a whole-length 
 of Philip the Fourth, at Messrs. Woodburns’, now in the collection of the 
 Duke of Hamilton, at Hamilton Palace, we both simultaneously cried out, 
 “ Raeburn!” The dress is of a dull colour, with small openings all over; 
 one glove is held in the hand, the other on, of a dull colour; the stockings 
 are white and the shoes dark, on a light deal floor, such as we see often 
 rendered with the same simplicity and force in the pictures of Teniers, whose 
 works he admired, and of whose manner he made many pasticios. The 
 breadth, the unaffected look of nature, and the broad handling, especially 
 in the dress, are all characteristic of Raeburn’s manner. 
 
 As I shall have occasion frequently to recur to the peculiarities of 
 Velasquez and Vandyke, I must leave, for the present, this general treatment 
 of the subject ; yet, as it is my intention to give the principal examples from 
 the heads and full-length portraits of Vandyke, it will be necessary here to 
 afford a slight insight into his principles and practice. “ Happily (as 
 Barry remarks), the works of Vandyke are not scarce in this country, and 
 in them you will see admirable examples of what has been urged respecting 
 the beautiful arrangement of light and colours united to all the graces of 
 intelligent, masterly execution; and his style is much more correct and 
 beautiful than that of Rubens. But perhaps it may be necessary to remind 
 you that the works of this great man consist of portraits, where he was not 
 at liberty to avail himself, in any considerable degree, of the opposition of 
 shadow (particularly on the flesh) ; the vigour of his effects was necessarily 
 brought about by the mere chiaroscuro, or opposition of the several colours 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 13 
 
 proper to his object, and to the relatives which accompanied it. The ob- 
 servations, therefore, which these works afford upon the higher order of tints, 
 and upon those in shadow and half light, will necessarily be too contracted to 
 go all the length which your studies may require, as I do not know that we 
 are in possession of any of the few historical compositions which he painted at 
 his outset of life, before he was much engaged in portraits ; but whether his 
 subjects be extensive or contracted, they exhibit such excellent principles of 
 art — the tints of his carnations have such verity in themselves, and such 
 value from the hues which are so judiciously associated with them in the 
 draperies and background , and the exquisite execution or conduct of his 
 pencil is so very compatible with the most enlarged and consummate style 
 of design and composition, that I know of no single model upon which your 
 attention might be more properly engaged.” I shall only add a few remarks 
 confirmatory of the correctness of Barry’s opinion. 
 
 While writing this part of the work, I went to the Duke of Buccleuch’s, 
 at Montagu House, to examine the rich collection of small studies by 
 Vandyke; in which his manner of conducting the union between the figure 
 and background is rendered so remarkable by comparing the various posi- 
 tions in which the several heads are placed. The result of my observations 
 I will give in a future portion of the work, when treating of the several parts 
 more practically ; here, however, I will insert a memorandum I made at the 
 time. “ The union of the figure with the background seems always to have 
 been a principle with Vandyke, not only with regard to the light and shade, 
 but also to the colour ; the shapes of his lights are extended or doubled, and, 
 repeated by means of the openings into the sky, or of a curtain, are coming 
 in contact so as to extend them and break down their force. In his portrait 
 of the Duke of Hamilton, in this collection, the strong lights on the dark 
 armour are repeated in the sky, which is hemmed in and formed into shapes 
 by means of the edge of a rock and dark stems of trees.” In the same room 
 is another whole-length of Lord Holland, whose light slashed sleeve and 
 doublet are extended into the sky and light column near which he stands. 
 
14 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 Another excellent example of the union of the colour with the background 
 is in a portrait of the Duke of Richmond and Lennox. He is dressed in 
 deep black, with a quantity of light-brown hair; this colour is spread on 
 a curtain behind him, which is cut into shapes by means of dark damask 
 flowering, thereby extending the dark of the figure, and presenting the 
 appearance of its being inlaid. This mode of repeating the colour of the 
 hair in the background is very common with Vandyke: a striking example 
 is in the picture of Killigrew and Carew at Windsor Castle. 
 
 Having proceeded thus far with general observations, I will now enter 
 into a practical investigation of the principles of portrait painting, com- 
 mencing with the features in detail. The peculiarities of the mouth should 
 be noticed in the first instance — not that it is of more importance than the 
 eye, but because from infancy to age it undergoes greater change than any 
 other feature. In children, we perceive the mouth admirably adapted for 
 the purposes of suction, from its rotund shape, from the hollow in the centre 
 of the under-lip to receive the nipple, and the depending peak of the upper 
 one, to lay hold and press out the nourishing fluid. The indications and 
 influences of these peculiarities often remain for a long time indelible. The 
 production of the teeth, and the alteration of the muscles of suction to 
 those of mastication, produce an elongation of the mouth ; 2 and in the adult, 
 when the enlargement of the facial bones requires a fresh set of teeth, this 
 elongation is still further extended, until we perceive the feature assume 
 the form which the Greeks designated as Cupid’s bow. The change from 
 infancy until old age is a gradual alteration from full curved lines to dry 
 straight ones; nor should we omit to mention the change which occurs in 
 the colour of the lips : in infancy, the ruddy wet character of a child’s 
 mouth, after taking its food, is very characteristic and beautiful; so, like- 
 wise, is the roseate hue of a young female, where we see combined the health 
 and innocence of childhood. If this impression could be carried forward, 
 we should naturally expect the same treatment to be continued to maturity, 
 and even to old age ; but a higher quality takes precedence — viz. the quality 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
R lii Y N 0 1 j D S 
 
 SIR JOSHUA 
 
 1 1 -i idJoj i PuMisihed QcvT’ l,8il.'9 bj» 1 Bogtu I ■ btre&t 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ptatf II 
 
 THE ANTIQUE 
 
 Joh n .Burnet 
 
 1 '.ndou. I’u 1.1 is I, cd- Dot 3 ; 1849, by D.Bogue. P.leel: Street 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 15 
 
 of the mind: Gnido, Vandyke, and Reynolds, represent the female mouth 
 as indicative of beauty, by delicate and refined colour; while Romney and 
 Lawrence, by loading the lips with strong colour, though giving their 
 portraits the character of robust health, have removed the impression of 
 delicate sensibility. It has been urged against this delicacy of colour, that, 
 in removing the impression of common nature, it engenders one of imperfect 
 health. In many of the female portraits of Vandyke, the mouth seems 
 pronounced with a greater degree of strength than we should expect from 
 his general practice, but this perhaps arises from his using Indian red, 
 which, from its being an oxide of iron, is in a manner indestructible, while 
 the surrounding half tints have faded. On the other hand, Reynolds, in 
 his use of lakes in finishing the mouth, appears now more delicate, from the 
 colour having fled — independent of which, Reynolds frequently opened 
 slightly the female mouth, and also the mouths of his children, which enabled 
 him, by the introduction of dark, to give a softness of character to the fea- 
 ture, without destroying its bulk. The outer corners of the mouth are 
 points of the utmost importance, and ought to receive the greatest attention. 
 In the antique, we find the Greek sculptors marked the termination full 
 and soft, which, compared with the Egyptian, gives a much higher cha- 
 racter. 
 
 The harmonious proportion of the different features, so necessary to the 
 existence of beauty, is early developed; and in children that agreement of 
 form is strikingly observable. Next to the mouth, and of equal importance, 
 is the eye. This organ is slower in changing its appearance, and changes 
 less than the other features ; hence the eyes of children seem large in pro- 
 portion. The greatest alteration which takes place from childhood to 
 youth is in the inner corner, or canthus of the eye ; and the greatest change 
 observable from youth to old age is in the outer corner, over which the 
 constant movement between the muscles of the upper and lower portion of 
 the face are in action ; hence the production of wrinkles and deep markings. 
 In Greek sculpture, this organ is seldom, if ever, perforated at the pupil, as 
 
16 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 was the custom of the Roman sculptors, which gradually gave place to the 
 introduction of jewels in more barbarous times; hence the expression of 
 beauty in Greek heads is to be found in the mouth, represented generally a 
 little open, and deeply chiseled. This circumstance has led their poets to 
 notice the mouth more particularly. 
 
 Anacreon, in enumerating the gifts of Nature, says, “ To the bull she gave 
 the twisted horn; to man, the thinking mind; and to woman, persuasion 
 more powerful than either — ‘ the word that hovers on the parted lips.’ ” In 
 representing the beauty of the female eye, no one has excelled Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence : the delicate varieties of the outline, the lustrous brilliancy of the 
 high light brought in contact with the dark pupil, and the thin thread of 
 the watery fluid trembling within the under eyelid, unite the most elegant 
 arrangement of form and chiaroscuro with the most minute finish ; if there 
 is a fault, it is that the other features are robbed of their importance, and 
 that the eye itself does not keep its situation within the orbit. 
 
 While writing this part of the investigation, being anxious to know how 
 the eyes could be kept in their situation in the orbits without strong 
 shadows under the eyebrows, I examined several celebrated pictures by 
 Rubens, Vandyke, and others, and found many possessed the same defect 
 that exists in those of Lawrence. One by Reynolds, a portrait of Nelly 
 O’Brien, seemed to have overcome this difficulty, by the eyes swimming in 
 a medium of delicate shadow. By this treatment, Sir Joshua did not 
 obliterate the peculiar quality of the youthful character of the eye, but kept 
 it in its place by the breadth of the surrounding shadow. The whole of 
 the shadows and half tints are of the most tender character ; but the work 
 is prevented from being insipid and feeble by the cutting lines of the figure 
 against the dark landscape background. Compared with Lawrence, 
 Reynolds has no pretensions to detail; his broad washes define every- 
 thing, but the artistic quality of his work leads his portraits into the 
 highest grade of pictorial representation. This delicate treatment of the 
 countenance, with the strong defined shadows of the background, seems to 
 
Platt, II I. 
 
 N A T U II E 
 
 John Burnet . 
 
 London. BtibJ i :A kA 
 
 Loe.C. Street . 
 

 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 17 
 
 justify Reynolds’s remark, in his lectures, “ that he was no enemy to dark 
 backgrounds.” I remember a portrait of a lady, by Phillips, seated out of 
 doors, with the light coming through on the countenance interrupted by 
 means of a white parasol ; it had precisely this effect. But the strongest proof 
 of the influence of delicate shadow in refining the asperities of Nature, was 
 in a portrait of old Sir Isaac Heard, of the Herald’s College, by Devis. While 
 talking of the harsh lines often observable in the countenances of old people, 
 he drew the muslin curtain across the painting-room window, which in an 
 instant produced the most delicious grey and pearly tones over the shadows, 
 and removed the whole appearance from common nature to the most finished 
 work of art. 
 
 As these remarks are more applicable to the female eye and to the eyes 
 of children, I shall now enter into a critical investigation of this feature in a 
 broader and more general character; and wall commence with the mode in 
 which Titian has treated it. In the portraits of this great master we find 
 every portion of the countenance laid out with reference to its grandeur, 
 and greatest breadth and dignity. For example: the pupil merges in the 
 outer line of the iris, thus giving its greatest bulk, while the upper and 
 lower eyelids are extended by shadows to the eyebrow, the darks of which 
 are carried out by a union and dependence with the adjoining hair; thus 
 making the extreme boundary of every feature its definition. Nor do the 
 minute portions of detail interfere with this extension, every part of the 
 work being made subservient to grandeur and breadth of shadow. 
 
 In examining the detail of the various portions of the eye, we find the 
 necessity of resolving every minute division into one general broad principle ; 
 for example, take the upper eyelid, we find it composed of a certain thickness 
 of muscle, through which the light partially shining, will give it a warm 
 colour even in its shadow. We find its inner boundary defined by its shadow 
 on the eye itself, while its outer edge is strongly marked by the eyelash ; yet 
 these in combination make but one mass, when viewed at the distance 
 necessary for a portrait to be taken. Even the light shining on the eye, and 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 partially illuminating the iris, is made subservient to the whole feature, and 
 each feature so modified as to produce a harmony in its union with the 
 entire countenance. It may be said the eye is that which attracts our 
 attention in the first instance when we are introduced into the presence of 
 any one; but the expression of the whole countenance requires a due 
 subordination to be given in individual parts. This is one reason why a 
 painter varies the position of his sitter until he fixes upon that view most 
 conducive to the likeness and general character. What I have mentioned 
 respecting the enriching and carrying out the beauty of the eye by means 
 of the hair and its shadows, both in harmonizing with the eyebrow, and 
 giving force to the cheekbone, will be found beautifully exemplified in the 
 portraits of Vandyke, particularly in those small works painted con amove , 
 of which there are engravings. I would also refer the student to 
 Vandyke’s treatment of the nose, so necessary not only to the likeness, 
 but as a characteristic feature of the human countenance. 
 
 In drawing and marking the nostrils and point of the nose, so as to 
 keep them in union with the profile of the upper lip, Vandyke’s manner is 
 not only peculiarly his own, but superior for taste and elegance to the 
 manner of all other painters. In this part of the countenance, and also in 
 the painting of the receding parts, from the bridge to the inner canthus of 
 the eye, he is often nearly approached by Sir Peter Lely, who seems to 
 have studied him with great assiduity. I would particularly mention 
 Lely’s portrait of the Countess of Grammont, at Hampton Court Palace, 
 as the most successful imitation lie has left of Vandyke’s manner. 
 
 I shall now make a few observations on the ear, which, though not an 
 intellectual feature, is yet an organ of great beauty, both on account of its 
 elegant assemblage of lines, and those convolutions, contrasting, yet 
 combining with each other, in an arrangement so congenial to our notions 
 of grace. The ears of children are rounder, and less marked by the hard 
 cartilaginous portions forming the inner boundaries, and evidently intended 
 for the greater protection of the organ, but which, to an artist, fall in with 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 


 
PORTRAIT PAINTING- 
 
 19 
 
 his notions of perfection, from their possessing a proper proportion of hard 
 and soft marking; and in this feature also, no one has surpassed Vandyke. 
 In his female portraits, the fashion of wearing the hair has prevented our 
 seeing the ear represented fully developed ; but what is perceivable is small 
 and more circular than in his portraits of men. In the portraits of 
 Velasquez, we see the ear carefully drawn and painted with precision, when 
 the light falls on that side of the head; whereas, when the ear is seen on 
 the shadow side, Velasquez treats it in a very subordinate manner, both to 
 assist the receding part of the head, by its melting in with the shadow, and 
 also to prevent it interfering with the more indispensable features of the 
 face ; and this treatment of the several features ought to lead us into an 
 inquiry, how far every part of the countenance is entitled to an equal 
 degree of finish : from Giovanni Bellini to Holbein, we perceive the features 
 immovable, as if cast in bronze; but Rubens and Vandyke have taught us 
 that life and motion are given by a mixture of hard and soft outlines, a 
 dexterity and looseness of handling, a certain degree of extreme finish, with 
 a portion of repose and indistinctness ; and if this reasoning is right, the 
 leading points only ought to be elaborated — and those portions which are 
 of less importance, by being kept subservient, will be rendered, by such 
 treatment, conducive to the completion and perfection of the whole. 
 
 Having now gone through the features of the face in detail, I shall enter 
 into an examination of the whole, when combined both in the antique 
 statues and in the life. By the study of the antique, in the first instance, 
 we acquire a more perfect knowledge of form, indicative of beauty and cor- 
 rect discrimination of character. The want of this previous study is per- 
 ceptible in the early German and Flemish schools; and the adoption of it 
 has stamped a grandeur and dignity on the works of the great masters of 
 the Italian schools. Fuseli, in his Lecture on Design, asks — “Why has the 
 Academy decreed that the student, before he be permitted to study life, 
 should devote a certain period to the study of the antique? If you fancy 
 the motive lay in the comparative facility of drawing from a motionless 
 
 d 2 
 
20 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 object, you lend your oavu misconception to the Academy; for though, in 
 general, it be undoubtedly more easy to draw an immovable object than one 
 that, however imperceptibly, is in perpetual motion, and always varies its 
 points of sight, it cannot be the case when applied to the antique ; for where 
 is the great name among the moderns that ever could reach the line and the 
 proportions of the ancients? What was it that the Academy intended by 
 making the antique the basis of your studies? — what, but to lead you in 
 the true elements of human essence; to enable you to judge of the transition 
 from the marble to life — what was substance and possession in the individual, 
 and what excrescence and want — what homogeneous — what discordant — 
 what deformity — what beauty.” 
 
 The perfection of form and completeness of character in the personification 
 of the human species observable in the Greek sculpture have arisen from the 
 contemplation of the most beautiful models of the race, and by a combination 
 of such examples of the most perfect kind; but though symmetrical and 
 uniform in the leading principles, their statues are, nevertheless, varied in 
 the highest degree, from the fighting gladiator to the celestial Venus, each 
 figure being perfect in its kind, from its possessing the various attributes of 
 strength, swiftness, courage, timidity, or beauty, and these drawn from a 
 close observance of nature. In all their varieties their figures seldom change 
 from seven heads to seven and a-lialf in their height, nor does the coun- 
 tenance ever, under the greatest expression, vary much from their general 
 standard — viz., dividing the face into three portions, the forehead occupying 
 one, the nose another, and the space between the nose and chin the third ; 
 which last is divided into three, one from the nose to the mouth, and two 
 from the mouth to the chin ; the space between the eyes is the breadth of 
 one eye ; and the mouth ranges in extent to the pupil of each eye, except in 
 children and youth, which, on account of the smallness of the mouth and 
 largeness of the eyes, is considerably less; the nose generally forms a con- 
 tinuation of the forehead, which has the effect of sinking the eyes deeper in 
 the orbit. All these peculiarities have the property of removing the human 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 21 
 
 countenance from the approach of any resemblance to the brute creation; 
 and the refined taste of the Greeks, strengthened by their philosophic learning, 
 enabled them to place their principles of design on the surest and most 
 permanent basis. 
 
 In entering upon a course of study from the antique, it is of the utmost 
 importance that the drawings be made at least as large as the original cast, 
 which will prevent the student from falling into a little style of delineating 
 form; and perhaps, in the first instance, he ought to confine himself to the 
 mere outline, that his eye may acquire a correct knowledge of form. When 
 this preliminary course has been gone through, his studies ought to be made 
 on tinted paper, sufficiently dark to permit white chalk to define the lights ; 
 for by using white and black chalk, he will arrive at a readier mode of 
 giving the light and shade, than by using black chalk only upon white 
 paper; and ultimately copy the model in oil colour, using only black and 
 white, with a little Naples yellow for the reflected lights. This method of 
 continuing his studies will enable him to acquire a gradual mastery over 
 the use of his palette and brushes, which are to be the means of carrying out 
 his future works. 
 
 When the student forsakes drawing from the antique, and turns to 
 painting from the life, or changes the portcrayon for the pencil, the stride 
 is too great from the one to the other. Having casts from the antique 
 heads in your room, will familiarise the eye of the student to a knowledge 
 of beautiful form, as we imperceptibly imbibe a taste for anything con- 
 tinually present. 
 
 In passing from the study of the antique head to painting from the 
 living model, some writers have recommended a deviation, that the 
 imperfections of Nature may be corrected. This is a dangerous course of 
 study ; for however this is to be practised in future works, the early studies 
 ought to be "correct imitations of what is presented to the eye. The 
 anxiety that many young students betray, in getting from the antique to 
 painting from the life, has been censured by some as detrimental to their 
 
22 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 future career as artists. In portrait-painting, as colour is the true 
 attractive quality, the palette can scarcely be too early on the thumb; 
 the student who is not early accustomed to the palette may be an excellent 
 draftsman, but not a painter. 
 
 Next in importance to the study of the antique statues is studying 
 the works of the great painters of portraiture, that we may gain an insight 
 into their mode of treating their subject in the arrangement of form, light 
 and shade, and colour. As often, therefore, as possible, make sketches of their 
 pictures. The noble dignity and unaffected simplicity of Titian’s portraits 
 arise in some measure from the superior character of the people he painted, 
 in look and costume fitted for the highest walks of historical art. The rich, 
 deep tone of the flesh, the intensity of black in the hair and beard, seem to 
 engender of themselves a superiority of style. And when I mention the 
 defects of form in Kembrandt, it applies more particularly to his models — 
 for in truth and richness of tone he yields the palm to no one. Had he 
 practised painting Venetian noblemen in place of Dutch burgomasters, 
 the air of the heads, and attitude of his figures, would of necessity have 
 been different. This is one reason that has placed the portraits of Titian as 
 the highest models for imitation and study. No words can give much idea 
 of this superiority. It may be said that many of the heads of Kaffaelle 
 have the same intensity of look ; but they lose the fascinating appearance of 
 reality observable in Titian’s works. The rich glazings and truth in his 
 colour contribute to this in a high degree ; for although the shadows of the 
 head are often dark, they are of the exact tone of flesh under such circum- 
 stances ; and from the depth and power of his backgrounds are rendered 
 comparatively luminous. Much of this reality and look of nature is observ- 
 able in the portraits of Velasquez; also in Vandyke’s Italian pictures. 
 The complexion of his English sitters compelled him, in his later works, to 
 adopt a lighter style of colouring. 
 
 Northcote, in his Conversations with Hazlitt , 3 remarks, that the portraits 
 by Titian look like the people themselves; those by Vandyke look like 
 

 
 
 
 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 23 
 
 pictures painted from the life; the portraits by Reynolds look like the 
 reflections of the persons in a glass; and that on examining a picture 
 by Sir Joshua, he has sometimes looked round to see whether the person 
 was behind him. This is a fine turned sentence, but of little use to the 
 student. In the portraits of Titian, the head and figure are often in 
 the same direction, which gives an unaffected simplicity and a superiority, 
 as if above the common method of courting attitude and picturesque effect. 
 In Vandyke's portraits we frequently perceive an exaggeration of motion, 
 and too great action displayed in the attitude. This it is, perhaps, which 
 gives them the appearance of pictures, from the taste and arrangement dis- 
 played in the whole work — the perfection of the art being the art of hiding 
 the means by which it is accomplished. Richardson remarks, that the por- 
 traits of Vandyke always look like high-bred people, and have the air of 
 persons of refined manners. Sir J oshua has the same look in his portraits 
 of ladies and gentlemen, and has infused into their attitudes and 
 expression the character of unaffected ease and natural grace. Much of 
 this peculiarity he acquired from his study of the actions of children, of 
 whose habits he was a constant observer. 
 
 I cannot refrain from bringing the style of portraiture pursued by 
 Velasquez into this comparison; it is evidently formed upon that of Titian, 
 large in form, rich in glazings, and well impasted in laying on the colours ; 
 but it is more frank, and done with greater facility. I speak more par- 
 ticularly with reference to the earlier pictures of Titian, for the later works 
 of most artists are like the history of the art itself, less hard, and rendered 
 with more vivacity. The change from Leonardo da Vinci to Titian was 
 great ; but the rapid and dextrous movements of Rubens’ pencil rendered 
 everything apparently fixed and stationary that had preceded him. Rubens 
 must have been but a short time in Madrid before Velasquez became 
 sensible of this, and engrafted the easy flow of Rubens’ handling upon the 
 intense depth and rich colouring of Titian. This is very perceptible in 
 two portraits of his in the collection of the Duke of Wellington ; and I re- 
 
24 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 member when, some years ago, they were exhibited in the British Institution, 
 
 I expressed my belief that they were each painted at one sitting, previous to 
 glazing ; but Sir Thomas Lawrence, who was examining them Avith me, very 
 properly observed that, under that appearance of off-hand dexterity, Avas the 
 ground- work of the most careful study. Since this part was in the press, I 
 have looked at them carefully in Apsley House, and find I was mistaken, for 
 though they exhibit all the freshness and undisturbed frankness of a first 
 sitting, they are full of varied tint — particularly the portrait of the Pope 
 — and Avell impasted Avith colour, especially in the lights. The glazings 
 are less warm than Titian, whose colours exhibit the appearance of flesh 
 seen under the influence of sunshine, or candlelight. As these two heads 
 are perhaps the finest examples of the style of Velasquez at present 
 in England, I hope another opportunity Avill be given of examining them 
 on the walls of the British Institution. 
 
 In comparing the portraits of Raeburn with those of Velasquez, there 
 are many points of agreement, particularly in the broad massive manner of 
 laying out the head, and a certain squareness in the handling ; and it is 
 observable, though both give a firmness to the forehead by introducing dark 
 shadows under the eyebroAV, such shadows rarely reach to the under eyelid, 
 but passing soft over the eye, enable the high lights to tell Avith out disturbing 
 the agreeable expression of the light under the eyelid. This practice also 
 prevents the nose from appearing too short, and removes all reference to the 
 mere skeleton which a full shadow in the orbit produces. The arrange- 
 ment of the height of the painting-room AvindoAv also gives a greater dis- 
 tinction between the darkness of the upper and under lip, such as we see in 
 the antique statues. This treatment of the chiaroscuro, leaving it undis- 
 turbed by the application of local colour, is frequently a source of strong- 
 expression, and ennobles the features by giving a greater breadth of 
 tone. In Lawrence’s portraits, and even in those of Vandyke, we often 
 find the overcharging of the under lip Avith colour counteracts this cha- 
 racteristic. 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 25 
 
 In preparing a work to receive every advantage in its finished state, it 
 is necessary that the brush marks, or edges of the colour used in the earlier 
 stages, should be softened and rendered smooth, either by a softener or 
 flat brush, otherwise they will interfere with finishing reserved for the last 
 sitting. The tints likewise ought to be less perfect, that they may depend 
 upon their perfection to the glazings and vivid handling of the last 
 touches. 
 
 Most artists have used a greater degree of neutral tint in commencing the 
 head, which not only prevents the colours looking too hot and foxy in the 
 last stage, but conduces to greater transparency and the luminous character 
 of flesh ; they ought also to be lighter, and used with little vehicle, that by 
 their opacity and substance the light falling on the picture may be re- 
 flected back through the transparent finishing tints. Colours of a uniform 
 hue painted over similar colours underneath, render the work heavy, and 
 destitute of that variety of tone observable in nature. Hot and cold tones in 
 alternate stages of work produce this quality ; but after a time shining through 
 each other, give a refinement of finish unattainable by any other process. 
 These tints ought to be mixed up on the palette before the sitter comes, 
 not only to save time, but to prevent the artist’s attention from being ob- 
 structed. For the light tints, use flake white, Naples yellow, vermilion, and 
 ultramarine of various strength, and of different degrees of warmth. The 
 dark tints ought to be mixed up and ready for the shadow side of the head, 
 such as umber or Cologne earth, Indian red and ultramarine reduced or 
 strengthened by the addition of black or white. When these are all 
 arranged, very little of positive colour, either hot or cold, will temper 
 and adjust them to the complexion of the sitter; in fact, it now becomes 
 a species of working with coloured crayons. When the dark shadows are 
 reduced in the finished work by lighter tints, it is a species of scumbling 
 which has often a beautiful effect, as it takes the brilliancy and luminous 
 property out of them ; and when the light portion of the face is enriched by 
 warmer transparent tints, it gives that appearance as if the fight was pass- 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 ing through the skin. Titian is marvellous in the process which gives to 
 flesh the exact look of nature. 
 
 Reynolds often commenced his heads with a little warm colour, and re- 
 served the hues of the life to the last sitting. Lawrence generally brought 
 up his portraits by repeated touchings of more delicate colour ; one depended 
 upon glazing, the other never glazed. What is generally understood by 
 glazing? In many of Reynolds’s pictures the glazings have fled, leaving the 
 preparatory ground too apparent ; in many of Lawrence’s, from his want 
 of protecting his colours from the action of the air, by a rich juicy vehicle, 
 he has produced a husky, leaden, opaque appearance. In the portraits 
 of Vandyke, we perceive the excellence of both methods combined, a perfect 
 mixture of hot and cold colours, and the utmost harmony and truth from 
 the exact medium of sharp and soft handling. In a portrait now in 
 the possession of Lord Colborne, and formerly in the studios of both 
 Reynolds and Lawrence, and highly estimated by each of those artists, we 
 gain an insight into the mode adopted by this celebrated man. From 
 its evidently being a first sitting or study, the whole mask is laid in with 
 warm dull flesh tint, without the high lights being put in, either in the eye 
 or on the other features ; the dark broad markings on the eyebrow, mouth, 
 and shadow under the ear, are put in with the same colour as the hair, 
 which is of dull brown, such as Cologne earth ; the nostril is very delicately 
 marked, as are also the convolutions of the ear, which is most perfect in 
 form and truth of marking : it is a profile view of the head, with the light 
 falling full on the cheek. 
 
 Comparing the portraits of Velasquez with those of Vandyke, we perceive 
 the former founded his style upon those of Titian, of whose works he was a 
 great admirer, purchasing many for the Spanish emperor, when on his travels 
 through V enice and Italy ; while, with all his refinement and truth of nature, 
 the school of Rubens seems to influence the portraits of Vandyke, both as 
 regards arrangement and colour. The portraits by Velasquez have more 
 the look of familiar life than those of Titian. Titian’s portraits look at you, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 ./ 
 
 / ■ 
 
 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 27 
 
 but do not speak, which gives them a silent and often a severe dignity, pro- 
 ducing awe in the beholder. Vandyke’s portraits often do not look at you, 
 but their action and animation give them a speaking character. It is more 
 difficult to produce an appearance of reality in motion than in quiescence : 
 the more you look upon the one, the deception is strengthened ; the longer 
 you gaze on the other, the illusion is lessened, as the lines conveying the 
 idea of motion are found to be stationary. Critics get over this difficulty 
 by saying Vandyke’s figures look as if they had been moving, but have 
 stopped, and will move again when you leave. 
 
 Giving a work the exact look of nature, unless combined with the 
 scientific arrangements of refined art, may create wonder in the ignorant, 
 but seldom gives satisfaction to persons of refined taste. It is mentioned 
 of a portrait by Titian of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, that on its being- 
 placed on the terrace in the sun, (perhaps to dry some of the colours,) the 
 passers by took off their bonnets, thinking it the Emperor himself. That 
 forms but one part of its excellence ; indeed, these stories are told of many 
 artists, from the Greek painter who deceived a brother artist by painting a 
 curtain, down to Rembrandt, who deceived a multitude by painting his ser- 
 vant-maid, and placing the picture in the window. This achievement is 
 produced by the Daguerreotype, especially now that the head can be given 
 the size of life; but it is not agreeable to look on. We are not deceived 
 in this way by the portraits of Velasquez, or even of Titian, which owe their 
 excellence to the skill with which they hide the appearance of studied ar- 
 rangement. Vandyke, on the contrary, captivates us by the beauty of his 
 composition and dexterous management of his colouring. In most works, 
 especially whole-length portraits, artists fail from an anxiety to make them 
 excellent by a combination of many qualities, which, though good in them- 
 selves, yet destroy each other from too great an assemblage. Breadth and 
 simplicity are entirely lost sight of, like the painter who, failing to paint 
 Beauty, made her gorgeous by the addition of jewellery and precious stones. 
 
 In this place I shall say a little respecting the background to a portrait, 
 
 e 2 
 
28 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 as nothing is of greater importance both as regards the head and the whole 
 picture. The reply which Rubens gave the person who recommended his 
 son to him as a pupil — namely, that he was sufficiently advanced as to be 
 able to paint his backgrounds, will never be forgotten — “ If he can do that, 
 my good friend, he stands in no need of my instruction so well did this great 
 artist understand the difficulty of this department of the art, and how much 
 all paintings depend upon it for this excellence — but none more so than 
 portraiture. In the portraits of the early Italian and Flemish schools, the 
 backgrounds form no connexion with the head, but are either of gold, green, 
 or red, thus giving the figure the appearance of being inlaid. Even as late 
 as the time of Raffaelle, this mode of treatment is perceived. The next step 
 was to break it up into form, but still with little union as to the tone of 
 the head or figure. Georgione, and finally Titian, carried this part of the 
 work to perfection, not only in melting and losing portions of the figure in 
 the ground, in spreading and repeating the flesh tints in the surrounding 
 mass, but also in giving the flesh its true tint, by delicate mixtures of hot 
 or cold colours, obtaining in this way, by contrast or harmony, richness, 
 depth, and truth to the glazings on the head. No one has contributed more 
 than Paul Veronese to this enriching of portraiture. His gorgeous assem- 
 blage of lines completely swallow up the dryness of the figures by their 
 doubling and repeating the outline, extending and ennobling it by the back- 
 ground coming in contact with the figures, sometimes strong, sometimes 
 delicate, in parts hot, and in other portions cold. His parallel lines and 
 perpendicular, obtained either by means of pillars, fiat walls, &c., give a va- 
 riety and richness to the complicated treatment of the attitudes of his figures 
 and their draperies. 
 
 Vandyke’s works, though modestly and subduedly treated, are full of 
 this quality, derived from a study of those of the great Venetians ; and 
 though Reynolds designates him as one in the list of ornamental painters, 
 yet great geniuses, such as Rubens, Vandyke, and even Reynolds himself, 
 know how to avail themselves of this gorgeous quality by modifying and 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 29 
 
 adapting it to the enriching of portrait painting. A study of the works 
 of Paul Veronese gives us a complete insight into the art of conducting 
 the background of a portrait, by which the celebrated painters of this 
 department have acquired their celebrity. But what I wish to impress 
 upon the student in this place is, not merely to be content with adopting 
 a pillar and a curtain as the best means of contrasting the lines, and giving 
 depth and variety in light, shade, and colour, but to inquire into the 
 cause of such advantage, and to adapt it to his own purposes in his own 
 way. It may be said that Velasquez, by making use of landscape, 
 enriched his backgrounds often without the aid of either, but no one 
 knew better how to make use of such forms by their lines— either con- 
 trasting the lines of his figures, or going along with them in harmony and 
 extension ; as, in writing, we often see the value of carrying on a sentence 
 to its greatest extent, and then terminating it by a full stop. 
 
 But to revert to the advantage of adapting the back -ground to the head 
 or figure: — We can easily perceive that, by bringing hot or cold colour 
 in contact with the face, its tints can be modified to the exact tone of 
 the life. This is one reason that many portrait-painters finish the head, 
 not only before they have painted in the back -ground, but often before 
 making up their minds what sort of arrangement to adopt. In finishing 
 the head, they merely rub in a little blue, red, or yellow, as may best suit 
 the complexion, at the time, and afterwards invent an arrangement that 
 shall account for such colours being present in that place; and lienee 
 it is that the talent of the artist, so far as composition is called into 
 request, is often exemplified. Confined half their lives to painting heads, 
 or single figures — to the study of colour, or the identity of likeness — they 
 are afraid to venture into the bold labyrinths of historical painting, and 
 shrink at a back-ground that would not only swallow up the importance 
 of the head, but render it less important, from its not being laid out, in 
 the first instance, in such a style as to enable it to support such a 
 combination. 
 
30 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 And here it is of the utmost importance to draw the student’s attention 
 to what it is that constitutes grandeur — whether a largeness of parts, 
 a continuity of outline, or a nobleness in the attitude. In the Italian 
 school all these properties are to be found, which, along with the Greek 
 marbles, ought to be an artist’s constant study ; even copying the attitudes 
 out of the various historical pictures, and forming and adapting his ideas to 
 accord with such transcripts, will be found of service. Also, it is useful, 
 and even pardonable at times, to alter the view or composition of any figure, 
 without being considered a plagiarist, turning the conception of the original 
 painter to your own purposes. All great portrait-painters, from the time of 
 Titian to Reynolds, have availed themselves of this privilege ; the Saint Cecilia 
 of RafFaelle and that of Domenichino have both served as the groundwork 
 for the portraits of feminine English beauty ; and even the ideas of Michael 
 Angelo have been pressed into the service. Reynolds has taken the compo- 
 sition of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse from the thought of Michael An- 
 gelo, exemplified in the Sybils of the Sistine Chapel; and General Tarleton, 
 in the surprise during the American war, is represented tying the strap of 
 his boot, similar to the figure in the Cartoon of Pisa, by Michael Angelo, 
 where some soldiers, bathing in the Arno, are aroused by the blast of the 
 trumpet on the approach of the enemy. Action, such as buttoning up a dress, 
 or tying up the boots, are not, perhaps, dignified attitudes for por- 
 traiture, but they indicate the casualties of war, and take off the common- 
 place attitudes of figures represented as doing nothing. 
 
 Having drawn the student’s attention to the back-ground and attitude 
 of the figure, I will now advert to the treatment to be pursued in painting the 
 dress — a matter of the highest importance; and this, in a great degree, 
 must be regulated by the costume. If of a high or pictorial character, it may 
 be finished minutely, and yet preserve an elevated character, such as we see 
 in many of the portraits of Titian, especially those dressed in full suits of 
 armour ; but if of a common-place nature, it ought to be sacrificed without 
 mercy. Reynolds struggled hard to extinguish the vulgarity of the blue 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 31 
 
 coats and red waistcoats, ostentatiously rendered by his master, Hudson ; 
 and Rembrandt often merely hinted at the colour or form of the dress; 
 even in the portrait of the Burgomaster Six, his great patron, still in pos- 
 session of the family, you may perceive that he is drawing on his glove, but 
 that only when you look for it. Both Ivneller and Lely mistook this treat- 
 ment, and endeavoured to imitate the draperies of Vandyke, without pre- 
 serving the subordination in which they were kept, never, in Vandyke’s 
 treatment, interfering with the dignity or beauty of the head. 
 
 Lawrence had still greater difficulties to contend with than Reynolds, 
 consequently we see him exerting all his powers to enrich the scantiness of 
 the dress ; and here we see the necessity for drawing upon the background 
 for all it can effect, by means of light and shade and colour. What I wish 
 to impress on the student in this passage is this — that if the dress is pic- 
 torial, finish it ; if not, render it subordinate to the head and general effect 
 of the picture. If I were to mention the two extremes of the influence of 
 costume in ennobling or deteriorating the dignity of the work, I would 
 notice the equestrian portrait of Philip the Fourth, by Velasquez, and the 
 portrait of Lord Ligonier, by Reynolds ; in the Philip, everything is given 
 with the force of truth, inasmuch as every part was excellent in the original. 
 Reynolds, on the other hand, had to work up his materials into dignity and 
 pictorial beauty by modifying every part of his subject. 
 
 In commencing a portrait, it is necessary that it should be either the 
 size of the life, or sufficiently reduced as to leave no chance of ambiguity — 
 half the size, and from that down to a miniature ; but as littleness is a con- 
 comitant of beauty, the female head may be painted smaller than nature. 
 Burke, in his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, argues in favour of this 
 treatment; while the sublimity or grandeur of a subject is ennobled by its 
 largeness. In many female portraits, from Vandyke to Lawrence, we per- 
 ceive this principle carried out ; at the same time, though by actual measure- 
 ment the head may be less than the life, yet from the treatment of surrounding 
 objects, and also from its appearing to be removed within the frame, it will 
 
32 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 appear of the full size when viewed at a convenient distance. On the other 
 hand, it is well to give the greatest extent to the features and mask of the 
 male head, as an assistant to character and dignity. 1 have not met 
 with a female head by Velasquez ; but in those of Titian, Rubens, and 
 Vandyke, we perceive a more delicate style of marking, and a gentler flow 
 of outline, than in their portraits of men. The square markings from the 
 pencil of Raeburn seldom accomplished the same excellence in his portraits 
 of ladies which was so happily adapted to his male sitters. In the treatment 
 of portraits of children Velasquez was particularly happy, giving even the 
 dress and subordinate parts with force and truth quite startling. But in 
 this department no one has exceeded the truth and character given by 
 Reynolds — the unaffected playfulness of the features, the health and 
 suppleness of appearance in the flesh, and the unsophisticated look of 
 nature in the whole arrangement. In his treatment of female portraiture 
 he is equally delicate, both in the form and colour. 
 
 The arrangement of a portrait, whether head-size, kit-cat, half-length, 
 or whole-length, ought to be complete within itself, as Vandyke exempli- 
 fies in all his works. Great injury is often done to an artist’s reputation 
 by taking a portion only for the purpose of engraving. It has been re- 
 marked that the canvas on which many of the whole lengths of Vandyke 
 are painted looks small compared with what is now in fashion ; but it ought 
 to be borne in mind, that Vandyke’s pictures were painted for small rooms, 
 and fitted to small spaces. The completeness here alluded to is one reason 
 why such a figure cannot, with safety, be made part of a composition, where 
 each part ought to depend on some other portion for the completion and 
 harmony of the whole piece. 
 
 In placing the sitter, it is necessary to observe the head in different points 
 of view, that the most striking and characteristic may be fixed upon, also 
 in modifying the light and shade. In some instances the features are too 
 powerful — in others, too weak ; hence the necessity of having a clear knowledge 
 of the best mode of treatment, only to be learnt by the study of the works 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 33 
 
 of those masters who have excelled in portraiture. In many instances 
 painting a likeness is a very easy matter ; but rendering the features under 
 the influence of either a subdued character, or pictorial representation, is a 
 work of the most difficult kind. An anecdote illustrative of this is told of 
 Phillips, who, having Lord Thurlow for a sitter, (whose features and 
 expression were of the most powerful kind,) kept changing the head in 
 every direction, repeating the request that he would trouble his lordship to 
 turn his face in this direction and in that; until Lord Thurlow’s patience 
 being worn out, he turned round and said, “I’ll trouble you, Mr. Phillips, to 
 trouble me as little as possible.” These considerations made Reynolds paint 
 Goldsmith in profile, and Lawrence represent Lord Brougham in front view. 
 
 Previous to commencing the portrait, we find that it was the custom of 
 most of the artists to make a slight sketch of the air and attitude — gene- 
 rally little more than an outline on dull or blue paper, touched upon with 
 white chalk. Velasquez, Vandyke, and Reynolds, have left several of these, 
 from which we gain a knowledge of their practice ; and Sir J oshua remarks, 
 that the drawings of all great colourists are very slight, the brush, not the 
 portcrayon, being their forte. With regard to the canvass or panel to be 
 painted on, it is impossible to name the best, as all artists have been led 
 away by their own taste. It may be safely noticed, however, that a light 
 ground is preferable, as giving more brilliancy to the flesh tints; indeed, 
 some artists give the canvass a coat of flake white where the face is to come, 
 that the priming of the cloth, which is generally common white lead, may not 
 shine through ; others prefer a ground of a dull tint to make their first sitting, 
 that the light and dark touches may tell with greater effect. Lawrence 
 used frequently to use this tint ; some have used an absorbent ground, that 
 the oil used in the first painting might be absorbed, which produces great 
 solidity and brilliancy when the work is finished; but to beginners this 
 mode is very difficult to get the mastery of. Titian seems to have used 
 various textures — sometimes merely fine linen, stretched without any pre- 
 paration; at other periods very coarse Italian canvass; and some of his 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 pictures are painted on leather — such as the Loves of the Gods, at Blen- 
 heim. Generally speaking, all Yanclyke’s canvasses were common white 
 lead preparations, which I would recommend to the student, who, when he 
 becomes a proficient, can then amuse himself with his own experiments. 
 
 In placing the figure on the canvass, the heads of the whole-lengths of 
 Titian, Paul Veronese, Velasquez, and Vandyke, are much nearer the top 
 than those of the present day ; much of this must, however, be regulated by 
 the height of the original, as a figure looks taller from the head being placed 
 near. 
 
 Another point I would draw the student’s attention to here is, respecting 
 the correctness of the perspective confined to the figure itself. Paul Ve- 
 ronese, and others of the Venetian school, first introduced low horizons — 
 nearly as low as the feet of the figure, but did not, on that account, treat 
 the countenance under the same influence, which would have rendered it 
 foreshortened, as being much above the eye. A low horizontal line not 
 only gives grandeur to the figure and whole design, it also flattens, by its 
 perspective, the floor on which it is seen to stand, and prevents it from appear- 
 ing to stand on tiptoe, as many of the earlier pictures seem to do, from a high 
 horizontal line being adopted. Whole-lengths are seldom hung on the walls 
 with the base of the frame lower than the eye of the spectator; of course, 
 in small portraits hung below the eye, the treatment may be differently 
 given. 
 
 As the hand is of so much importance in portraiture, both on account 
 of its beauty, and also from its use in conveying action and expression, I 
 will say something about it in this place. The Greeks, in establishing rules 
 for the proportion of the human figure, seem to have watched and carefully 
 examined the general law established by Nature; — comparing a multitude 
 of examples, and where Nature was defective, assisting her, not only in 
 the individual portions, but also in the harmonious arrangement of the whole 
 figure. Hence the uniformity of tlieir statues, only varying according to 
 the several properties assigned to the different characters. I have mentioned 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Y AN D Y K E 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 35 
 
 this in the treatment of the head by the Greeks. The hand of several of 
 the monkey tribe, especially that of the chimpanzee of Borneo, is the nearest 
 approach to the human hand; but, as Sir Charles Bell observes in his 
 Bridgewater treatise, it ditfers in many particulars : “ The most remarkable 
 peculiarity in the chimpanzee, as distinguished from the hand of man, is the 
 smallness of the thumb ; it extends no further than to the root of the fingers. 
 On the length, strength, free lateral motion, and perfect mobility of the 
 thumb, depend the power of the human hand. Without the fleshy ball of 
 the thumb the power of the fingers would avail but little; and, accord- 
 ingly, the large ball formed by the muscles of the thumb is one of the dis- 
 tinguishing characters of the human hand, and especially in that of an expert 
 workman.” 
 
 The deviation the Greeks have strengthened and increased for a wider 
 distinction between man and the inferior animals is the elongation of the 
 thumb, extending to the first joint of the forefinger; the equal division of 
 the length of the middle finger with the palm of the hand, measured from 
 between the opening of the fingers and the fingers themselves ; and as, in 
 the brute creation, the fingers bend inwards to the palm to fit them for 
 clinging to trees, &c., the early artists have made the points of the fingers, 
 especially in the female hand, to bend slightly outwards, giving great 
 flexibility and grace. 
 
 Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, Correggio, and Parmegiano extended this 
 variation from the Greek to the greatest degree without falling into cari- 
 cature, which it afterwards assumed in the hands of Golzius and others. 
 The graceful bending of the wrists, so great an assistant to beauty, was also 
 extended to the extreme in the Italian school : this we also owe to the Greeks, 
 as in the earlier Egyptian sculpture we find a continual delineation of 
 straight lines. In female portraiture this graceful peculiarity is of the 
 utmost value, and only appears absurd when joined to heads and characters 
 unable to bear so high a style of art. Countenances possessing much of 
 common nature are incapable of great elevation of character; but scientific 
 
 f 2 
 
3G 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 arrangement of light and shade, and truth of nature in the colour, will 
 always render any position of the hand sufficiently pleasing and appropriate. 
 
 A writer on art has censured the hands in Vandyke’s pictures as 
 being too affected in attitude, and considers Reynolds to have overcome 
 this without losing any of the grace and beauty so necessary to the female 
 hand. Where Reynolds excels in the treatment of hands is in the natural 
 look, both in the light and shade, and colour; also in the way in which he 
 brings the dark touches and shadows of his draperies in contact, which not 
 only gives brilliancy to the flesh tint, but serves to enrich the former by an 
 assemblage of lines. This is a peculiar feature in Vandyke, from whom he 
 must have acquired the arrangement; for, except in some of Vandyke’s 
 pictures, where evidently the hands have been painted by his assistants, no 
 one has ever excelled this great master in the graceful drawing and delicate 
 marking of the hand. His education as an historical painter, and his fine 
 taste, seem to have enabled him to paint the hand in the most difficult 
 positions, and, as I believe, to put it in without having a sitter before him. 
 
 The great difficulty a modern portrait painter has to contend with, is the 
 scantiness of the drapery, and often the sleeve of the coat cutting oft’ the 
 completeness of the form. Hot only the position of the hands in a portrait, 
 as indicative of the action, is of the utmost importance, but likewise for the 
 purpose of repeating the flesh tints of the head, and giving an arrangement 
 to the various points of light. This alone gives a scientific and pictorial 
 character to the work ; but care ought to be taken, in attending to the distri- 
 butions of the light points, that the hands are not so placed as to give the ap- 
 pearance of the arms being short — a defect that never can be made agree- 
 able. In historical art this seems always to be avoided by the best masters, 
 particularly by Raffaelle. Bringing the hand in contact with the head, 
 though difficult to perform with adroitness and taste, is not only conducive 
 to the most surprising effects in enriching the features, but also in taking off 
 their harshness, by making them a part of the composition. Reynolds has 
 taught us this, by many examples — such as his John Hunter, Zachary 
 

 
YARI O U S. 
 
 Jolm Burnet. 
 
 )ndon, Published 1819, 'by .'D.Bogue, PJ.eet Street 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 37 
 
 Muclge, Sterne, &c. ; and his female portraits, particularly those seen near 
 in profile, are much enriched by it. I think our debt is greater to Reynolds 
 for this mode of keeping the flesh tints more in a mass, than to any other 
 painter. Rembrandt has done it, but more sparingly. 
 
 The equal proportion of light and bulk on each of the hands, which even 
 in Titian looks formal, and wanting variety, has been tried to be avoided, 
 by throwing one in shadow, or putting a glove on. This, of course, has been 
 repeated so often, and by the best artists, that it only shows us how difficult it 
 is to invent the natural means of making Nature subservient to pictorial 
 composition, and an agreeable arrangement of light and shade. The dread of 
 painting a portrait for the mere appearance of being painted, seems to have 
 put the great masters upon calling in every shift to take off such a sterile 
 and common-place character. The treatment of the hands in a portrait 
 shows the invention of the painter perhaps more than any other part of the 
 human figure; but where it has been felt and acted upon, from Raffaelle to 
 Reynolds, little new is left for the present painters. Let the student never 
 fail to observe, that the action and expression of the hands may be too 
 powerful for the repose of the whole, and draw the attention from the head 
 — as may be exemplified in the energetic discourse of the French people. 
 
 I shall now return to the first sitting for a portrait. It seems to have 
 been an axiom with all the great masters to place the sitter above the eye, 
 as far as the countenance was concerned, without showing too much of the 
 nostrils, or treating the lower portions of the figure under the same strict 
 rule of perspective foreshortening; where it has been done, it seldom has 
 an agreeable effect, and looks as if the figure had belonged to part of a 
 ceiling. The throne in a portrait painter’s room, on which the sitter’s 
 chair is placed, is seldom higher than two feet, and most painters stand at 
 the easel, so that there is not much difference in the actual view of the face. 
 Reynolds, who was a little person, is supposed to be the first who brought 
 this practice into fashion; but it is not so. Vandyke was also a small 
 person, and painted standing. Velasquez we know did, as he is represented 
 
38 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 in the picture where the Emperor’s children are in his painting-room. 
 Titian, though of small stature, on the contrary, is said to have generally 
 painted sitting, as we know by an anecdote told by Vasari; for while once 
 painting the Emperor Charles the Fifth, a friend of his, a sculptor, stood 
 behind his chair, and made a model of the Emperor at the same time. 
 Lawrence and Raeburn, living in our own time, we know to have painted 
 standing; but of course, all these artists, when they had to paint small 
 pictures, used a sitting posture, for the better purpose of steadying the 
 hand, and painting more minutely. I merely mention these matters that the 
 student may see it must depend very much on the subject in hand, and adopt 
 that which is most conducive to his success. 
 
 It has often been a point of consideration whether small pictures, and 
 even miniatures, ought to be treated as if they were life size ; I should have 
 thought that the excellent works of Harlowe, in oil, and of Mr. Sanders and 
 Mr. Thorburn, in miniature, afforded excellent examples of the same prin- 
 ciples which guided Titian and Velasquez being perfectly available in 
 conducting a work on ivory. The small treatment adopted by the Petitos, 
 and others of that class, is gone by; but we must always except and 
 admire the miniatures of Cooper, who was a kind of Vandyke on a 
 reduced scale. The great beauty of a picture, whether it is the size of 
 life or a small miniature, is its possessing breadth of light and shade, and 
 breadth and simplicity of colour, and the unaffected truth of Nature. With- 
 out these qualities, the most dexterous handling is but giving currency to 
 a specious falsehood. 
 
 Colour being the chief attraction in painting, especially in portraiture, 
 the student ought to have this constantly in mind, even in the first sitting, 
 and reserve the richness of the tones to a more advanced stage. The 
 likeness, which may be produced without much colour, will be a sufficient 
 difficulty to overcome in the first instance. Reynolds seems to have 
 gradually worked up his pictures from dead coloured preparations, and to 
 have reserved his glazings for the last sitting. 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 39 
 
 Wilkie, in a letter from Geneva to his friend Collins, says, “ After 
 seeing all the first pictures in France, Italy, and Germany, one must come 
 to this conclusion — that colour , if not the first, is at least an essential 
 quality in painting. No master has yet maintained his ground beyond his 
 own time without it. But in oil painting it is richness and depth alone, 
 that can do justice to the material. Upon this subject every prejudice with 
 which I left home is, if anything, not only confirmed, but increased. What 
 Sir Joshua wrote, and what our friend Sir George Beaumont so often 
 supported, was right; and after seeing what I have seen, I am not now 
 to be talked out of it. With us, you know, every young exhibitor with 
 pink, white, and blue, thinks himself a colourist like Titian; than whom, 
 perhaps, no painter is more misrepresented or misunderstood. I saw 
 myself at Florence his famous Venus upon an easel. This picture, so 
 often copied, and every copy a fresh mistake, is what I expected it to be, 
 deep, yet brilliant; indescribable in its hues, yet simple beyond example in 
 its execution and its colouring. Its flesh ( 0 how our friends at home would 
 stare!) is a simple, sober, mixed-up tint, and apparently like your skies, 
 completed while wet. No scratchings, no hatchings, no scumblings, nor 
 multiplicity of repetitions ; no ultramarine, lakes or vermilions ; not even a 
 mark of a brush visible — all seemed melted in the fat and glowing mass, 
 solid, yet transparent, giving the nearest approach to life that the painter’s 
 art has yet reached.” Much of this breadth and richness of tone is enhanced 
 by the figure lying upon white linen, and having a bunch of dark flowers 
 in her hand. It must have been modelled and carefully defined in the pre- 
 paration for this last general glazing, which gives it a luminous appearance. 
 The student may see an example of this treatment of the flesh in a portrait 
 by Vandyke, of his mistress, Margaret Lemon, at Hampton Court. The 
 absence of white linen reduces the brilliancy, but the dark red drapery 
 which she holds round her gives the flesh one broad uniform tone. The 
 glazings are prevented from being heavy by deep dark touches in the folds 
 of the dress, which, coming in contact with the hand, give it breadth and 
 
40 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 lightness. This mode of treatment is very common in Vandyke’s pictures, 
 and successfully carried out in those of Reynolds, even when the draperies 
 seem too light to warrant it. Much of this breadth and richness is derived 
 from the contemplation of nature under the influence of candle-light, which 
 swallows up the trifling minutiae of detail, giving a warm glow to the whole 
 mass. Vandyke’s Italian pictures possess this in a greater degree than many 
 painted in England, arising, perhaps, from greater despatch being necessary. 
 Barry says, many of them were painted at once; but those that I have 
 examined, even the slightest, bear evident marks of repeated painting. It 
 is related, that many of his sitters remained with him to dinner, and after- 
 wards went into the painting-room. This practice must have given him a 
 better insight into their character and expression. As the dinner hour, at 
 that time, was one o’clock, he had an opportunity of comparing his sitter 
 with a fresh eye; an advantage which Reynolds, though never losing sight 
 of the character and expression, in preference to the cold imitation of the 
 mere feature, was prevented from having, owing to the lateness of the hour 
 of dining when he lived. 
 
 In tracing the progress of a work through the various stages, it is im- 
 possible to lay down absolute rules, for many circumstances may arise 
 which will oblige the artist to alter his process ; but it may be safely re- 
 commended gradually to strengthen the colours as the various sittings pro- 
 ceed, both by a general glaze over the whole, and, while wet, painting into 
 it both with opaque and transparent tints, which will give it a higher re- 
 finement and solidity than any other process ; still reserving the power of 
 adding a general glaze at the finishing sitting, if his practice is to be founded 
 upon such principles. 
 
 In a portrait of a lady in the possession of James Hall, Esq., evidently 
 a second sitting, we perceive the progressive painting of Sir Thomas Law- 
 rence. The face has received a general tint of the most delicate hue, while 
 all the features are carefully painted in, leaving the hair untouched from 
 the first outline, which is of a brown colour, such as black and burnt sienna, 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 41 
 
 with a few dark blots ; these, however, whether arising from the shadow of 
 the head or darks under the curls, are so contrived as to soften down and 
 repeat the shadows of the features, and, by their arrangement, give a deli- 
 cacy and beauty to the whole composition. This is often lost sight of, and, 
 in finishing a head, the dark markings are obliterated and forgotten. In 
 Reynolds we find this peculiarity preserved to the last ; and whether in 
 light or dark hair, they retain their predominance. Nothing gives greater 
 beauty of composition and lightness of effect than this mode of treatment, 
 combining, as it does, all the felicity of a sketch with the refinement of a 
 finished work. What is happily done at first ought to be carefully pre- 
 served, if possible, to the last. I remember a practice G. S. Newton had 
 (whose works yield to none of our own time for beauty of colour) : many 
 portions of his first painting, where he had been happy in the tone and colour, 
 were left untouched to the last, only finishing round such parts with a tint 
 of the exact hue. While 1 am upon this part of the subject, I wish to make 
 a few remarks upon those small touches of dark so essential to the lightness 
 of effect, and giving the appearance of vivacity and motion to the work ; in 
 fact, this is one of the great distinctions between early art and painting in 
 an advanced state. 
 
 In advancing the several sittings towards the finish, care ought to be 
 taken not to engender heaviness, which repeated painting often produces, 
 and also darkness in the flesh-tints, arising from too much vehicle being used 
 with the colour. This richness ought to be reserved to the finishing ; and 
 after a general glaze, the dark markings, and final touching upon the 
 features with transparent colour only should be added. This seems to be 
 uniformly the practice with Titian. And it is in the sitting before this that 
 the life-like handling, such as we see in Velasquez, ought to be given, thus 
 recovering the work to the free character of the first painting. The first 
 painting embraces the laying out of the features, with their exact situation 
 in reference to each other, and the pronouncing with firm colour the fore- 
 head, nose, and cheek-bones. A gradual increasing of the flesh-tints takes 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 place in modelling out the likeness, still without much vehicle, but with a 
 mixture of warm tones and pearly greys, occasionally reconciling them 
 to each other by means of a dry brush, giving them an enamel sur- 
 face, without rendering the work woolly, which too much use of the 
 softner produces. In the English portraits by Vandyke, very little, com- 
 paratively speaking, is left to this final glazing. Though there is a total 
 absence of dryness and huskiness, the variety of tint is rendered into one 
 general mass by the hands and flesh tints being surrounded with dark, or 
 placed upon a black dress. 
 
 1 am making these remarks with a picture of Vandyke’s before me, the 
 Duke of Richmond, formerly in the possession of Paul Methuen. And here I 
 notice the repetition of the light colour of the hair, by means of a dog seated 
 at his feet, on which one of his hands is resting. I may observe that there are 
 four repetitions of this subject by Vandyke, with the variation of the dog being 
 adorned in two of them with a collar of pearls, having earned this distinction 
 from his having saved his master’s life. These little incidents are always to 
 be taken advantage of, as they all tend to give a historical character to the 
 work. Many of Reynolds’s portraits acquire interest from their embracing 
 some incident connected with the person represented. 
 
 But to return to the treatment of the head. The last finishing ought to 
 give the complexion and general look of the head when viewed a little way 
 off ; and this character will much depend upon the colour or depth of the 
 back-ground, whether a red curtain, a blue sky, or a flat dark shadow. The 
 light in most pictures goes diagonally across from the upper corner to the 
 lower, not only as it gives the longest line, but as it is the best mode of 
 dividing a work into the greatest breadth of a light and dark mass. This 
 effect is often accomplished by the arrangement of hot or cold colour, as 
 well as by the means of chiaroscuro alone. And when we consider the 
 multiplicity of instances in which it has been adopted, it becomes almost 
 hopeless to strike out anything new; still, in the endless resources nature 
 offers, we often see a novel and beautiful adaptation of the principle. I 
 
DYKE 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 43 
 
 am here speaking of a whole-length, and also a half-length ; my remarks are, 
 of course, inapplicable to a single head, which requires all the space for 
 repose alone. 
 
 Barry mentions, in his Lectures, that Vandyke often depends upon the 
 variety of colours in his works for the light and shade. This, on examination, 
 is very perceptible, especially in his groups of portraits. And here the 
 student will find that the cold colours are arranged in masses and a variety 
 of lesser shapes across the picture, while the warm colours take a contrary 
 direction. This practice is common with the Venetian painters; but, in all 
 probability, Vandyke had it from his master, whose whole works are filled 
 with this mode of treatment. 
 
 Having mentioned the works of Paul Veronese as a mine from which 
 portrait painters have collected their materials for the enrichment of 
 portraiture, I may observe that many beautiful examples are to be found 
 in his pictures justifying such arrangement. Towards completion of the 
 likeness, it is of great advantage to place the picture and sitter together, 
 removed to such a distance as will bring them both under examination at 
 the same time, when the points of difference can be more easily detected 
 by such comparison. Lawrence and Raeburn used to paint on the picture 
 while so placed, and retire again to examine the effect. This mode secures 
 the general look of the whole, and recovers that breadth which painting on 
 the necessary detail often destroys. 
 
 We often learn much from the contemplation of bad pictures, by in- 
 quiring into the reason why they are so ; and, consequently, avoid the same 
 arrangement. One cause, amongst many, is the want of due subordination 
 of the white drapery, to harmonize with the flesh tints. This has been 
 gradually gaining ground from the time of Giorgione to that of Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence. Reynolds seems the only painter who combated with it; so 
 much did he strive against this want of union between the linen and the 
 flesh, that it became a fashion for ladies to have their lace collars steeped 
 in coffee grounds, to give them an antique look. But it is not only the 
 
 G 2 
 
44 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 whiteness of the linen that is objectionable, but the total absence of light 
 and shade upon it, and a careful avoidance of small shadows, which would 
 give it some pretensions to a work of art. Independent of there being too 
 large a mass, it is often cut into the most formal shape. In male portraits 
 we frequently see the shirt cut out by the waistcoat, with all the formality 
 of a white heraldic shield, thereby destroying, by its strength and bright- 
 ness, the effect of the countenance. Lawrence and Hoppner were the most 
 successful in defeating, by their skill, this obtrusive character, both by the 
 reduction in size, and also by the irregularity in form. In female portraiture, 
 the dress gives a greater scope to the taste of the artist, and brings the 
 work more within the reach of pictorial arrangement. Giorgione and 
 Titian, perhaps, were the first to harmonize the linen with the tones of the 
 flesh. Correggio often has it very cold, for the purpose of repeating the 
 cool tints of the sky. The Parma Holy Family is strikingly painted upon 
 this principle ; and I remember the first impression it made upon me was, that 
 the picture was out of harmony, the glazings being rubbed off; but his 
 several works show that this was his principle, referring his flesh-tints to 
 the yellow draperies for harmony, these colours afterwards falling into 
 red, with rich brown shadows. The Duke of Wellington’s Correggio is a 
 beautiful example of this. We perceive the Genoa pictures of Vandyke 
 often have the linen not only cold, but the ruffs and wristbands dyed of a 
 dark blue-black; this gives great brightness to the flesh, and must either 
 have been the fashion at the time, or indicative of mourning. Mr. Holford 
 lias a portrait of a lady painted under this arrangement, the face and hands 
 being the principal lights. 
 
 In a head-size portrait, if a hand is introduced, it seems to have the 
 best effect when placed immediately under the head, which gives a firmness 
 to the line of the figure. In treating of a half-length portrait, a greater 
 space is, of necessity, given to the background compared with the head ; this 
 requires breaking up with forms whose lines shall counteract those of the 
 figure, or giving a repetition of the colours in a subdued tone. Either in a 
 
PORTRAIT PAINTING. 
 
 45 
 
 sitting or standing position one of the greatest difficulties seems to be 
 the treatment of the legs ; a shadow across is often necessary to keep the 
 figure within the frame, and give a subsidiary character to the extremities, 
 reserving the principal strength for the head and hands. With respect to 
 whole-length portraits, greater variety, in light, and shade, and colour, is 
 necessary; though many of Vandyke’s are equally simple in the arrange- 
 ment with his kit-cat and half-length sizes. 
 
 What further practical remarks I have to offer, I shall append to the 
 several descriptions of the plates. I have confined my observations to the 
 higher class of portraits, though it cannot be concealed that many works 
 of merit (of which something might be said) have been rendered less 
 valuable by the wishes of sitters being too much attended to. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 These sketches are principally taken from Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose 
 representations of childhood and youthful feminine beauty are surpassed by 
 no one. The student will find an excellent specimen in the National Gal- 
 lery, being studies from the head of the daughter of Lady Gordon. In 
 tracing the alterations which take place from childhood to age, we perceive 
 a gradual elongation, at the same time a greater approximation between the 
 outer line of the upper and lower lip ; the line between the upper lip and 
 the nose also varies in a high degree, in childhood being of greater projec- 
 tion, in the adult more perpendicular, till in old age, from the loss of teeth, 
 it presents a receding line from the nose to the mouth. 
 
 PLATE II. 
 
 In the antique statues and busts, the mouth is generally represented a 
 little open and deep cut in, so that it becomes the principal feature in the 
 countenance. The teeth are seldom represented, except in busts of fauns, 
 satyrs, and inferior characters, giving thereby the look of common nature : 
 with their divinities this principle was rigidly attended to. The male and 
 female mouth often presents but little deviation, except in the marking of 
 the moustache, and a greater firmness in the marking below the under lip. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 47 
 
 PLATE III. 
 
 I have noticed elsewhere the breadth and extension of the lines of the 
 eye and eyebrow, by means of communication with the hair, and giving 
 strength to the outward boundaries of the adjacent forms. Now this 
 arrangement does not detract from the importance of the eye, nor, indeed, 
 any other of the features; but making them the principal of a larger com- 
 position, gives them a greater importance; and by breaking down by such 
 conduct the isolated character and decided form of one feature compared 
 with another, gives a greater harmony and beauty to the whole. Large 
 blank spaces are not advantageous to any feature, and it has been contended 
 that even in the celebrated portrait of Cardinal Bentivoglio, by Vandyke, the 
 features lose their importance from the largeness and baldness of the skull. 
 Another important advantage in bringing the hair in contact with the cheek- 
 bone, is giving a greater firmness to this part of the countenance. The 
 mouth and eye are certainly of the most importance in a portrait, as pos- 
 sessing a greater character of intellectuality; but, nevertheless, the beau- 
 tiful convolutions and forms of the ear may be made, not only attractive, 
 but a means, either in a profile or front view, of assisting very much the 
 perspective appearance of the whole. In childhood it is softer and less 
 cartilaginous than in adults, and also more circular in shape than in old 
 age. 
 
 PLATES IV. & V. 
 
 These sketches are taken from the studies in the possession of His 
 Grace the Duke of Buccleuch. The originals are in burnt umber, or bone 
 brown, and are evidently done at once ; the ground, which is a wash of the 
 same colour, being either wet, or, if dry, a wash of varnish, put on so that 
 the handling both of the light and dark touches melt in, and are spread 
 
48 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 and softened by a clean brush. The high lights in Vandyke’s portraits are 
 generally on the forehead, cheek bones, and above the upper lip; these 
 points are often strengthened by the shadows of the features or darks of 
 the hair coming in contact with them. The light mass and touches on the 
 collar serve to throw the lower portion of the face into half tint, without 
 having recourse to strong shadow, which would have the effect of cutting 
 up the breadth of light on the head, considered as a whole. 
 
 The originals, both at Montague House, and at the Gallery at Munich, 
 are from nine inches to a foot in height, and take in the hands. As engravings 
 from them are not difficult to be had, the student in portraiture ought to 
 collect them at every opportunity, as the best models on which to establish 
 his principles. 
 
 PLATE VI. 
 
 These studies are from the original in Windsor Castle, painted by 
 Vandyke, for the purpose of sending to Bernini the sculptor, and from which 
 his bust was chiseled, afterwards destroyed at the fire in Whitehall. As we 
 have here a portrait seen from different points of view, I wish to call the 
 student to the marked character of the profile, traceable throughout, and 
 never lost sight of in the heads by Vandyke ; on this alone rest both the 
 character and the resemblance, and therefore it ought to be always kept in 
 mind, as in the progress of a portrait many points of likeness have been 
 lost from this circumstance alone. It has been remarked, that the resem- 
 blance of no man has been handed down to posterity in a stronger light than 
 the likeness of Charles I., Vandyke having caught even the anxious and 
 thoughtful look, that, as Richardson remarks, “ in a manner renders it 
 historical, as he was then entering upon his troubles.” This, in some 
 measure, arises from the peculiar character of the countenance, which, 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 49 
 
 like that of Napoleon, Nelson, or Pitt, and several nearer our own time, 
 differing from the generality, is therefore recognised at a glance. 
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 The pictures by Velasquez are remarkable for their great simplicity, 
 both in the attitudes and the treatment of the chiaroscuro; the lights are 
 generally congregated at one portion, without interfering with the effect of 
 the head. I have marked the high lights in this sketch strongly, that the 
 student may perceive their situation, gradually descending to the base of the 
 picture ; the brilliancy of the head is enhanced by being placed against a cool 
 sky. I have also marked the parts of the figure where the background 
 comes in contact, the dress forming the principal mass of dark, without being 
 cut out against the ground. 
 
 PLATE VIIL 
 
 The original from which this sketch is taken is in the Royal Museum of 
 Madrid, and though of the size of life, the canvas only measures six feet ten 
 inches in height; consequently the head of necessity comes near the top of 
 the frame. In the present day, the situation of the head is generally 
 regulated by the height of the sitter, since our canvasses are prepared of a 
 larger size. The extreme light is brought in contact with the strongest 
 dark on the shadow side of the figure, and is kept in check by the angular 
 light behind the tree on the other side; here, as in the former sketch, we 
 perceive the high lights form a complete arrangement in themselves, and are 
 sparingly brought down to the lower part of the picture by a few small 
 touches on the dog behind him. In several of the Genoa pictures, by 
 Vandyke, we perceive the same powerful principle; also in many of Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds’. Of course the introduction of the half lights and 
 
 H 
 
50 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 extreme darks tends to harmonize these forms, but it is in laying out the 
 ground plan in a scientific manner, and giving it all the force of the 
 palette, that we can only give the firmness and simplicity of nature. The 
 difference between good pictures and bad is the want of arrangement; 
 consequently the artist is never sure where to give any portion the strength 
 necessary, or to abstain. The original of this is the Cardinal Don Ferdinand 
 of Austria. Plate VI. is from the picture of Philip IV., also in the Royal 
 Museum. 
 
 PLATE IX. 
 
 The original is in the Royal Museum in Madrid — it represents the 
 Infant Don Balthazar Carlos. A duplicate of this picture is in London, in 
 the possession of Mr. Artaria; there is also a sketch in the collection at 
 Dulwich. Velasquez, in his treatment of this subject, has brought the 
 figure, whose dress is composed of yellow, pink, and black, glittering in 
 light, up against a cool blue sky, which tint, gradually descending over the 
 snow-covered mountains of the Sierra, subsides into the green and yellow 
 tones of the middle distance, melting by degrees into the brown fore-ground ; 
 this, with the dun pony, making a mass of dark. Thus we perceive hot 
 and cold colours combining with the light and shade of the picture — a 
 practice common to Velasquez. We also see in this subject a favourite 
 principle of this master, contrasting the direction of the lines of his back- 
 ground with the lines of the groups, thus producing a harmony and proper 
 balance of the whole. 
 
 PLATE X. 
 
 This is the portrait of Charles I. in his robes, at Windsor, which Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds notices, in a letter in The Idler , as being remarkable for 
 the unaffected air of the figure. The dress is purple, which finds its 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 51 
 
 shadow in a dark brocade curtain behind, thus extending it by a breadth in 
 the chiaroscuro. The light of the ermine finds its half tint in the sky ; the 
 outline of the base of the column, with the crown, &c., enriches by its form 
 the off-side of the figure — a practice common to Vandyke. I may likewise 
 notice the opening between the pillars, allowing the cool tints of the sky 
 to come in contact with the head. This mode of giving brilliancy to the 
 flesh is common to the Venetian painters, from whom both Rubens and his 
 pupil adopted it. 
 
 PLATE XI. 
 
 In the body of the work, I have mentioned the difficulty of keeping style 
 and grace free from the appearance of affectation ; also, the difficulty of 
 adapting the higher styles of the art to common portraiture. Reynolds 
 seems to have been aware of this, and, except in the masses of light and 
 shade, often made use of common forms in the outline of his hands. The 
 general shapes and quantities observable in the best masters are always to 
 be found in his portraits ; also, the true colour of flesh ; likewise, the extreme 
 darks coming in contact with the high lights. In his portraits of the 
 nobility, and fancy pictures or portraits painted under particular characters, 
 we often find the application of the graceful forms of the antique, or those 
 of the Italian school. In this plate I have given sketches of hands from 
 the portraits of Titian, Correggio, and Vandyke, from which the student will 
 perceive the great similarity of the mode of treatment adopted by these 
 great masters of the Art; a greatness and gracefulness of style, and the 
 manner in which the extreme darks come in contact with the lights of the 
 flesh. From the Egyptian to the Greek we perceive a greater separation of 
 the fingers from the palm of the hand, which was afterwards extended by 
 the Italians on the restoration of painting. The expression of the hand is 
 by this means increased, and also the power of introducing strong darks, 
 
 h 2 
 
52 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
 
 giving thereby brilliancy to the flesh tints, and solidity to the work taken 
 as a whole. Meagreness or a dryness of outline in contact with the drapery 
 seems to be got rid of from this mode of treatment. 
 
 PLATE XII. 
 
 The colour of this picture is a striking example of the simplicity of 
 arrangement adopted by Vandyke. The dress is a dark blue, which is 
 repeated and broke down by the sky. The picture is prevented from being 
 cold by the dark curtain behind being of a warm colour, especially at the 
 bottom, which warm colour is carried to the other side by a few roses of a 
 faint red ; the warm stone colour of the wall and vase crosses the figure by 
 means of a scarf of the same hue, giving thereby a union of the figure with 
 its ground. This is a very common practice with Vandyke, and serves at 
 the same time, from its dull tone, to light up the face, and give brilliancy 
 to the flesh tints. The original is at Petworth, where are also some of 
 Vandyke’s most celebrated portraits of the ladies of Charles I.’s court; but 
 the student will also see some fine examples at Windsor. 
 
 n 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note 1. 
 
 The Greek statues were the principal sources from which the great artists founded 
 their style, on the revival of painting in the fifteenth century. These great examples of 
 beauty and chasteness of form are considered the chief resources to the present day. 
 The accidental varieties and defects of the living model are corrected by a reference 
 to their refined proportions and form. In commencing his studies by drawing from 
 the antique, the student imperceptibly imbibes a correctness of eye, founded upon 
 the most perfect principles of taste. Of course, it is necessary for the pupil to begin 
 by copying drawings previous to attempting the more difficult study from the plaster 
 casts ; but I have found the latter is often too long delayed. Another mistake that 
 beginners make, is finishing both the background and inferior portions with too great 
 scrupulosity. In the advice I have here given I am borne out by the remarks of 
 Michael Angelo, who, upon seeing a picture by Titian, praised the colouring highly, 
 but observed it was a pity that the Venetian painters had not established their practice 
 on a better style of design. 
 
 Note 2. 
 
 The note respecting the peculiar character of the mouth I have carried into the 
 description of Plate I. ; and I do not find that anything material can be added to the 
 description of its characteristic feature given in the text. 
 
 Note 3. 
 
 Hazlitt, in his notes to Northcote’s Life of Titian, says : “ Titian in his portraits 
 seems to have understood the principle of historical design better ihan any body. 
 Every part tells, and has a bearing on the whole. There is no one who has such 
 
54 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 simplicity and repose. No violence, no affectation, no attempt or forcing in effect— 
 insomuch, that by the uninitiated he is often condemned as unmeaning and insipid. A 
 turn of the eye, a compression of the lip decides the point. He just draws the face 
 out of its most ordinary state, and gives it the direction he would have it to take ; hut 
 then every part takes the same direction, and the effect of this united expression 
 (which is absolutely momentary, and all but habitual) is wonderful. It is that which 
 makes his portraits the most striking in the world. It may be compared to the effect 
 of a number of small loadstones, that, by acting together, lift the greatest weights. 
 Titian seized upon the lines of character in the most original and connected point of 
 view. Thus, in his celebrated portrait of Ilippolito de’ Medici, there is a keen, 
 sharpened expression, that strikes you like a blow from the spear which he holds in 
 his hand. The look goes through you ; yet it has no frown, no startling gesticulation, 
 no affected penetration. It is quite simple, yet it almost withers you. The whole 
 face, and every separate feature, is cast in the same acute or wedge-like form. The 
 forehead is high and narrow, the eyebrows raised and coming to a point in the middle, 
 the nose straight and peaked, the mouth contracted and drawn up at the corners, the 
 chin acute, and the two sides of the face slanting to a point. The number of acute 
 angles which the lines of the face form are, in fact, a net entangling the attention and 
 subduing the will. The effect is felt at once, though it takes time and consideration 
 to understand the cause. It is a face which you would beware of rousing into anger 
 or hostility, as you would beware of setting in motion some complicated and dangerous 
 machinery. The possessor of it, you may be sure, is no trifler. Such, indeed, was the 
 character of the man. This is to paint true portrait and true history. So, if our artist 
 painted a mild and thoughtful expression, all the lines of the face were softened and 
 relaxed. If the mouth was going to speak, the whole face was going to speak. It 
 was the same in colour. The gradations are infinite, and yet so blended as to he 
 imperceptible. No two tints are the same, though they produce the greatest harmony 
 and simplicity of tone, like flesh itself .” — Plain Speaker , vol. ii., p. 217. 
 
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