The Miseries of a Portrait-Painter. 383 



d lately evident character, but a very large proportion are to the full 

 as outre when the outside covering of language is removed. There 

 are few artists who do not know what it is to be asked gravely, and 

 as though it were the most natural thing in the world, to perform or 

 produce what are of necessity moral or practical impossibilities in 

 their pictures, and to be sufferers for not having in the respects re- 

 quired met the ideas of their employers. Expressions are to be 

 combined which never can co-exist; alterations are to be made with 

 a view to gain an end which it is in the nature of these alterations 

 not to attain ; emendations are suggested which are incompatible 

 with the body of the work ; shapes are to be added which ought not 

 to be admitted ; lines are to be altered which would be destructive of 

 the composition ; colours are to be thrown in which would put the 

 whole picture out of keeping. And with all this, no argument on 

 the part of the artist is of avail. The purchaser of the picture does 

 not see that he is in the wrong; that he is as competent to construct 

 an Esquimaux grammar therefore he perseveres, and the artist has 

 only the choice of submitting or affronting his employer. He may 

 adopt which course he likes ; but the alternative is agreeable. We 

 had occasion, years agone, to consult an artist of high ability and re- 

 putation, now dead Nollekens on this subject, with a view to learn 

 the mode which he in his long practice had found most efficacious in 

 warding off the observations of ignorance. Nollekens was as blunt 

 as old age, native temper, success, and wealth could make a man ; 

 and his advice was briefly as follows: " What you complain of is 

 the old story ; you must make up your mind to it. The only thing 

 you have to do is never to give in. Tell the people either that you 

 won't alter it, or that they may do it themselves if they know so 

 much about the matter, /have always done so. But I forgot," he 

 added, after a moment's pause, " that you have to make your way 

 first : I mean act so after you have become known ; you will be 

 thought better of, for the arts are only a matter of opinion in England, 

 not of knowledge." Sir Joshua Reynolds's plan, the reader will re- 

 collect, was different from this. He only took down his trumpet ; 

 and, as he was deaf, he could not be expected to hear. Whatever 

 plan, however, is pursued, we are to bear in mind that we run the risk 

 of forfeiting the patronage of the sitter no unimportant considera- 

 tion. There is no profession which, in respect of patronage, at all 

 resembles Portrait-painting. A physician of merit who gets a^patient, 

 in all probability secures a continuance of attendance. The person he 

 has cured once may become ill again, and will again apply to him. 

 A lawyer of ability who gets a client, in all probability secures him 

 for a long while ; in any future legal proceedings the client will go 

 to the person who has already been made acquainted with his affairs. 

 An author of talent who gets a reader, will in all probability continue 

 to have this reader's support as long as he publishes. A tradesman 

 who supplies a family with goods, in all probability secures a length- 

 ened custom ; the matter is not terminated in one dealing, but may 

 be spread over a series of years. Now this is not so with the por- 

 trait-painter ; and it is not so with him alone. A man who sits once, 

 never sits again ; the matter is closed in one dealing : no further be- 

 APBIL, 1837. 2C 



