LITHOGRAPH CRAYON DRAWING. From bust of a young girl by Donatello, by F. Grellet. Note absence of strong marking of naso-labial line, the absence of line at the angle of the lips, and of orbicular muscles. The absence of these markings indicates youth. To be compared with the Lefebvre drawing.
{105} set in a cavity in the skull called the orbital orifice, and in a very old person the lower edge of this cavity is sometimes perceptible under the flesh, and occasions a line in an artist’s drawing. But the main cause for the lines around the edge of an eye is that the eye is surrounded by a soft muscle, which is called the orbicular muscle. The part of this muscle which forms the eyelid is called the palpebral part; the part above the eyelid, the superior orbital orbicular; and the part below the lower eyelid, the inferior orbital orbicular. At the outer corner of the eye, as the two parts come together, they show in an old person’s face habitually, and in a child’s face laughter creates radiating lines called crow’s-feet. These lines called the crow’s-feet, and still more the folds in the muscles below the eye between the lower eyelid and the base of the orbital orifice are, like the naso-labial line, very conspicuous in old age and almost entirely absent in childhood. If you understand this you will turn to the beautiful drawing by Lefebvre, and realize why, although there is a great deal of shading on the hair, ear and jaw, and quite a perceptible piece of shading on the wing of the nose, there are no lines down the cheek between the eye and the lips. Indeed, in the original drawing, the white paper was there left entirely uncovered. Of course, the artist might have filled the entire space with shading, but in that case it would have been a graduated tint suggesting the roundness of the cheek, as in the Grellet Young Girl, but there would have been no suggestion of lines; the moment lines are introduced the characteristics of old age are {106}
CRAYON STUDY OF A CHILD. By J. Lefebvre. Half-tone from a lithographic
reproduction by F. Grellet.
suggested. At the corner of the mouth is a line which runs in about the same direction as the naso-labial line. In youth the cheek is slightly rounded out from the lip, and in a side view it is usually the outline of the cheek which makes the little line at the corner of the lips in the Lefebvre and the Grellet Young Girl, and always in the side view of a baby’s head; but as the head becomes less babyish it is the muscles of the lips which cause this line. The muscles of the lips are exactly like those of the eye; they run entirely around the lips, but at the corner of the mouth, instead of having the radiating line like the crow’s-feet, the threads of the muscle have a more perpendicular trend and create a line running in the same direction as the naso-labial line; while below this, but attached to it, is the triangular muscle of the lips, or the {107} depressor of the angle of the lips; this, in the ordinary old person, creates a long line, starting at the corner of the lip, running down considerably. This line is very conspicuous in the Brontolone, but absent in the Young Girl and the Lefebvre. It is seen plainly in the Choudieu, and we do not see how you can ask for a better lesson in drawing than the comparing of the highly finished Brontolone with the very simple Choudieu!
Once more, above the eyes the forehead is covered with the frontal muscle. The fibers run perpendicularly, but when they contract, as when a person frowns, the folds in the flesh run horizontally; these folds are particularly perceptible in old age. Though every mother will remember their alarming occurence in babyhood, we do not associate them with youth; and so in the Grellet Young Girl we find no lines in the forehead, nor are they in the Lœwe-Marchand, hence a placid temperament is suggested in that portrait. Many men no older than Monsieur X. have constant lines in their forehead, and the actor uses these muscles continually for expression. We write the plural because the muscle is frequently divided into right and left portions which follow the direction of the eyebrows, so that when the muscle is contracted the eyebrow’s are no longer horizontal but have an M shape across the forehead. In the Watts there is a very perceptible line which curves over the right eye, taking the direction of the eyebrow; this is part of the frontalis muscle. If the line on the other side were completed it would take a similar direction over the left eye.
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ENGLISH NEWSPAPER PORTRAITS. Sir John Willoughby, Mr. Colquhoun, and Mr. H. H. Champion, from the Pall Mall Gazette. Undoubtedly traced from photographs. Executed in a simple manner, suitable for quick printing on a cylinder press. Note absence of naso-labial line, except perhaps in the case of the right-hand side of Mr. Colquhoun’s head. This is either a slip of the pen, meant to come lower down to represent the mustache, or it is the naso-labial line, and its companion was lost in the engraving process. (This line could very well have remained in Mr. Colquhoun’s face, as he is evidently much older than Mr. Champion and Sir John Willoughby.) Also note absence of strong marking about the orbicular muscles, and absence of lines in the frontalis. The absence of these lines indicates youth. Compare with the Choudieu and Watts, where the introduction of these lines represents old age.