"You've hit it, my boy," he said. "That's just what I thought myself, but I was not quite certain."
He paid me the great compliment of saying he had seen enough of my work to know he could safely ask my opinion, and I felt extremely flattered.
When Sir William Cunliffe Brooks commissioned him to paint the portrait of his daughter (the Marchioness of Huntly), a considerable stir was created in the art world when it became known that Millais had received £1000 for the painting, for up till that time such a figure was unheard of for a modern portrait. Sir William was delighted with the picture, but when he saw the completed portrait he was disappointed to find that his daughter's hands (which were most beautiful) were covered with gloves. He accordingly returned the picture, and expressed his desire that an alteration might be made and the hands shown in all their beauty. Millais made a compromise by repainting one of the hands ungloved.
Holl had discarded his pathetic subjects for portraits, and surprised the art world with a vigorous canvas of the celebrated mezzotint engraver, Samuel Cousins, which was followed by an equally strong portrait of Piatti the violoncello player. Consequently, he became quite the vogue and was until his death completely occupied with commissions. I think that of his many successes the painting of Lord Spencer was perhaps his finest portrait.
Holman Hunt (Ruskin's ideal painter) had no following as a portrait painter; his portraits were hard, "tinny," and laboured, and became singularly unpleasant on a large canvas, although his subject pictures were conceived from a high standpoint, and for that reason will last.
Old George Richmond was a highly accomplished draughtsman; many of his portraits in crayon were exquisite masterpieces,[5] and most of the great men of the day (especially the clergy) were depicted at one time or another by his refined pencil. William Richmond (now Sir William), his son, inherited his father's talent but in a different manner; foremost in my memory stands out a portrait of Lady Hood.
MRS GEORGE REYMOND MURRAY.
A STUDY.