ursts from it, and everything seems
sacrificed to this quality of striking lifelikeness. And some very
wonderful modern portraits have been painted from this point of view.
But have we not sacrificed too much to this quality of vitality? Here is
a lady hurriedly getting up from a couch, there a gentleman stepping
out of the frame to greet you, violence and vitality everywhere. But
what of repose, harmony of colour and form, and the wise ordering and
selecting of the materials of vision that one has been used to in the
great portraiture of the past? While the craftsman in one is staggered
and amazed at the brilliant virtuosity of the thing, the artist in one
resents the sacrifice of so much for what is, after all, but a
short-lived excitement. Age may, no doubt, improve some of the portraits
of this class by quieting them in colour and tone. And those that are
good in design and arrangement will stand this without loss of
distinction, but those in which everything has been sacrificed to this
striking lifelike quality will suffer considerably. This particular
quality depends so much on the freshness of the paint that when this is
mellowed and its vividness is lost, nothing will remain of value, if the
quieter qualities of design and arrangement have been sacrificed for it.

Frans Hals is the only old master I can think of with whom this form of
portrait can be compared. But it will be noticed that besides designing
his canvases carefully, he usually balanced the vigour and vitality of
his form with a great sobriety of colour. In fact, in some of his later
work, where this restless vitality is most in evidence, the colour is
little more than black and white, with a little yellow ochre and
Venetian red. It is this extreme reposefulness of colour that opposes
the unrest in the form and helps to restore the balance and necessary
repose in the picture. It is interesting to note the restless variety of
the edges in Frans Hal's work, how he never, if he can help it, lets an
edge run smoothly, but keeps it constantly on the move, often leaving
it quite jagged, and to compare this with what was said about vitality
depending on variety.

[Illustration: Plate LII.

JOHN REDMOND, M.P.

From the drawing in the collection of Sir Robert Essex, M.P., in red
conte chalk rubbed, the high lights being picked out with rubber.]

* * * * *

Another point of view is that of the artist who seeks to give a