to a common type; the individual likeness is not in
this direction but at the opposite pole to it.

It is one of the most remarkable things connected with the amazing
subtlety of appreciation possessed by the human eye, that of the
millions of heads in the world, and probably of all that have ever
existed in the world, no two look exactly alike. When one considers how
alike they are, and how very restricted is the range of difference
between them, is it not remarkable how quickly the eye recognises one
person from another? It is more remarkable still how one sometimes
recognises a friend not seen for many years, and whose appearance has
changed considerably in the meantime. And this likeness that we
recognise is not so much as is generally thought a matter of the
individual features. If one sees the eye alone, the remainder of the
face being covered, it is almost impossible to recognise even a
well-known friend, or tell whether the expression is that of laughing or
crying. And again, how difficult it is to recognise anybody when the
eyes are masked and only the lower part of the face visible.

[Illustration: Plate L.

FROM A DRAWING IN RED CHALK BY HOLBEIN IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM PRINT ROOM

Note how every bit of variety is sought for, the difference in the eyes
and on either side of the mouth, etc.]

If you try and recall a well-known head it will not be the shape of
the features that will be recollected so much as an impression, the
result of all these combined, a sort of chord of which the features will
be but the component elements. It is the relation of the different parts
to this chord, this impression of the personality of a head, that is the
all-important thing in what is popularly called "catching the likeness."
In drawing a portrait the mind must be centred on this, and all the
individual parts drawn in relation to it. The moment the eye gets
interested solely in some individual part and forgets the consideration
of its relationship to this whole impression, the likeness suffers.

Where there is so much that is similar in heads, it is obvious that what
differences there are must be searched out and seized upon forcefully,
if the individuality of the head is to be made telling. The drawing of
portraits should therefore be approached from the direction of these
differences; that is to say, the things in general disposition and
proportion in which your subject differs from a common type, should be
first sough