The art of portrait painting in oil colours
WITH OBSERVATIONS ON SETTING AND PAINTING THE FIGURE
BY
HENRY MURRAY, F.S.A.
ALTHOUGH Portrait Painting is sometimes regarded as but an inferior branch of the fine arts, yet it is nevertheless a fact that but few of its professors ever attain to signal eminence. If we endeavour to call to mind the roll of its most distinguished masters in this country, from Holbein to our own Millais, we shall find the list far from being a lengthy one, as compared with the catalogue of those whose names are as household words in other branches of art. It is no part of our purpose to discuss the question why this is so ; but it is an undeniable fact that it is a very difficult task to endow a head with thought and lips with language, and to portray benevolence, magnanimity, and all the other virtues which beam forth in the human face divine. Our purpose is rather to indicate some of the difficulties which the student must inevitably encounter, and to offer such practical assistance as will enable him to overcome them and achieve that success which should be the object of his efforts.