Criticising the paintings in the Louvre in a paper on 'Men and Pictures,' we find the young art-student riding an audacious tournament against conventionalisms. He takes very candid exception to the practice of surrounding the heads of translated beings, and particularly angels, with an invariable halo of gold leaf. He happens to remember that stage tradition was always wont to dress the gravedigger in 'Hamlet' in fifteen or sixteen waistcoats, all of which are consecutively removed; and he presumes this ancient usage is founded on some very early custom, real or supposititious, to depart from which would savour of profane innovation.
The Princess and the Frog
Another favourite bent of Thackeray's humour was the illustration of books of fiction. He confessed he longed to write a story-book in which generations upon generations of schoolboys should revel with delight, and which should be filled with the most wonderful and mirthful pictures. The illustrations on this and the preceding page may serve to show what he might have done had he not more especially devoted himself to literary work.
Heads of the People
Frontispiece to Murray's 'Official Handbook of Church and State'