se he
gave an hour and a half each. He seldom kept a sitter more than two
hours, unless the person happened--and that was often the case--to be
gifted with more than common talents. He then felt himself happy, and
never failed to detain the party till the arrival of a new sitter
intimated that he must be gone. For a head size he generally required
four or five sittings: and he preferred painting the head and hands to
any other part of the body; assigning as a reason that they required
less consideration. A fold of drapery, or the natural ease which the
casting of a mantle over the shoulder demanded, occasioned him more
perplexing study than a head full of thought and imagination. Such was
the intuition with which he penetrated at once to the mind, that the
first sitting rarely came to a close without his having seized strongly
on the character and disposition of the individual. He never drew in
his heads, or indeed any part of the body, with chalk--a system pursued
successfully by Lawrence--but began with the brush at once. The
forehead, chin, nose, and mouth, were his first touches. He always
painted standing, and never used a stick for resting his hand on; for
such was his accuracy of eye, and steadiness of nerve, that he could
introduce the most delicate touches, or the almost mechanical
regularity of line, without aid, or other contrivance than fair
off-hand dexterity. He remained in his painting-room till a little
after five o'clock, when he walked home, and dined at six.... From one
who knew him in his youthful days, and sat to him when he rose in fame,
I have this description of his way of going to work. "He spoke a few
words to me in his usual brief and kindly way--evidently to put me into
an agreeable mood; and then having placed me in a chair on a platform
at the end of his painting-room, in the posture required, set up his
easel beside me with the canvas ready to receive the colour. When he
saw all was right, he took his palette and his brush, retreated back
step by step, with his face towards me, till he was nigh the other end
of the room; he stood and studied for a minute more, then came up to
the canvas, and, without looking at me, wrought upon it with colour for
some time. Having done this, he retreated in the same manner, studied
my looks at that distance for about another minute, then came hastily
up to the canvas and painted for a few minutes more." These details
may be supplemented by the