38 Portrait Painting in its Historical Aspects. [Feb. 7, 



who, with Gainsborough and Eomney, established for the first time a 

 purely English school of portraiture. The different characteristics 

 of these three men of genius were then discussed. 



They were all three pre-eminently successful with women. In 

 their hands, for the first time since the classical epoch, had female 

 portraiture completely freed itself from the tyranny of stiff clothes 

 and stiff attitudes. For female charm and grace their works were 

 quite unrivalled. The male portraits were pronounced less satisfac- 

 tory. There was an imperfect rendering of form and a general lack 

 of vigorous drawing. The hands especially were very poor. These 

 three painters were all very prolific, and although their finest works 

 were in many ways admirable, their average productions were very 

 slight and very much scamped. 



The lecturer summed up his complaint against these men of genius 

 by saying that they allowed their feeling for grace and charm to 

 overcome their love of truth. There was a great lack of sincerity in 

 these courtly painters, and for the highest form of portrait painting 

 sincerity was absolutely essential. 



This was the last of the great epochs of portrait painting — Sir 

 Thomas Lawrence, a man of great ability but of false ideals, started 

 a decadence that reached its low^est depths in the early Victorian 

 era. The lecturer preferred not to discuss the burning subject of 

 modern painting. He merely remarked on the excessive love of 

 novelty and of eccentricity that characterised it. He ended up by 

 maintaining, in the teeth of modern art theories, that it was better for 

 a portrait to resemble the person it was meant for, or that if this 

 was too much to expect, that it should at least resemble a human 

 being. 



[J. C] 



