I had only a strip or so of canvas, and I painted a head on leather to show His Highness how difficult it was, for me at any rate, to get anything like an effect on that material, and I pointed out the fact that a skin of leather large enough for a landscape was almost impossible to obtain. A message, therefore, was sent to Bombay for canvas and paints.
On Christmas Day, Mr. Pyne and the other English called upon Mr. Collins and myself, who were living in the town, and after a ride in the afternoon, we all dined together in the Workshops, drinking the health of the Queen, standing. A congratulatory message also was sent to Her Majesty from the Kabul Colony, to be telegraphed from Peshawur.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Adieu to Kabul.
Afghan artists: their “style.” Presentation of the little Prince’s portrait. His quarters at the Palace: presents. The Prince as a host. After dark, a walk in the Kabul Bazaars. Before the Amîr: the shock: the result, landscapes. A fresh commission. The “Gnat’s” interpreting. The Amîr’s answer. Cogitation: decision. Art pupils before the Amîr. His Highness’s criticism. The Amîr’s kindly remark:—an interpretation thereof. The miner’s dog: other dogs: shattered nerves and surgical operations. The worries of Kabul life. To Paghman: the glens: the spy, and his reception. Sketches. Before the Amîr. A fresh commission. Completion. Adieux.
Afghan Artists.
Two days after Christmas the most skilled of the artists arrived at my house to learn portrait-painting. They could all draw, and one of them showed talent of no mean order. The first thing, I found, was to teach them to draw a head life-size: formerly, they would do one the size of the thumb nail. The next, to teach them to draw heads in different positions, and not in the one conventional position to which they were accustomed; after that to show them how to put in their shadows crisply and with decision, having due regard to the relative value of each. For models I called up my Afghan servants and the soldiers of the guard. I have brought away with me many of the drawings of these artists, so that I have an interesting series of “types” of men born and bred in Afghanistan. The most skilful of the artists gave an almost Holbeinesque look to his drawings. They were perhaps somewhat hard, though he began to acquire, before I left, a freer style of drawing.
How they would have turned out as colourists I do not know, for we never got on to painting.
At the beginning of January I received an order from the Sultana to present formally to the little Prince Mahomed Omer the portrait I had painted of him in Paghman.