Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-02-19

FLORENCE, January IS, 1851

My DEAR SIR In. your kind and very in
teresting letter from Turin, you quote a ques-
ton put and answered as a fact by some Pro-
lessor, Il forget who you told me he was,)
namely: "Why is it that wife is a poor
judge of her husbands portrait?" and you
ask me to give you in writing my reasons for
declaring that 1t as a fact that wife is almost
always the Gerry best Judge of her husbands
portrait. The reasons are as follows:
A wife qDho loves her husband sees instantly
the slightest change in his expression. She
knows by his looks if he is well or i'll, good
natured or angry. She perceives almost his
very thoughts, and all this by the changes of
his countenance. His manner, to be sure, as
sists his expression, whatever it may be, but
the face for the most part reveals to her the
action of his mind and the state of his bodily
feelings. Now, if the wife can discern with
such nicely, by the changes from the habitual
expression of her husbands features how he
feels and thinks, surely she Of all others ought
to be the best judge of the likeness of those
features If the likeness is perfect, she sees
him in it; if imperfect, she does not see him in
it, She never saw him SO; it is not familiar to
her; it is not in the mirror of her soul, and
her love rejects it as foreign and unknown.
| This is my argument, and my experience proves
| its truth
| have made many likenesses of husbands,
and wives, too and have always found them
the last to be satisfied with each others busts.
Their criticisms have usually followed in the
progress of my work 10 the end, while. others
have been satisfied long before. Acquaintances
and friends have said, You can do no more
| to it; it is as like as it can be,n &c. But hus-
bands and wives have said, "No; it is not
| right yet; it is not the right expression" They
might not say where it was wrong, but they
felt that something was not familiar to them.
| A picture or bust should, like mirror re-
| fleet the very image of it's original; and if it
does that the husband or the wife is sure to be
| satisfied. If it does not, others may be, but
they never can be. The question, then, is,
Why do others discover likeness that the
wife cannot perceive? will answer this by
asking another question. How is it that pa
rents rarely discover the resemblance which
| their children bear to themselves and to one
another? Everybody else may perceive the
| very strong resemblances, but the parents can
not Why? Because the parents are familiar
| with all the minute peculiarities and differ
ences; strangers see only the generals. To a
| stranger a flock Of sheep are all alike; to the
| shepherd no two are alike. To stranger,
| likeness of an individual sheep would be the
likeness of every one in the flock but the shep-
herd would select the sheep represented, if the
likeness was good, but not otherwise. And so
it is with families There is a family resem-
| blance perceived by strangers but not perceived
by the family. Let the father be represented
faithfully, and the wife and children will see
him, and him only, in it; but the stranger will
perceive perhaps something of the whole fami-
[y in his likeness The stranger, as it were,
stands at distance when he perceives the
general outlines; the relative stands too near
for this he sees only the details comparatively.
It is often said that some portraits are easy
to execute and some are difficult and it is pre-
sumed that very marked features are the
easiest but have found all alike difficult. It
is true that a resemblance may soon be produced
in a case Of marked features but resem-
blance is not always likeness A child may
draw resemblance to horse, a cat an ele-
plant; but can he portray the likenesses of two
individual horses, CATS or elephants?
Now, there are men so distinguished by very
marked features from all other men, that they
seem to belong almost to distinct races and
such men afford opportunities for easy portraits.
The most inferior artists can produce resem-
blances of such men. Everybody will say at
once this is meant for General Jackson, General
Washington, or perhaps DR.. Franklin, and yet
the same degree Of resemblance to some one
whose features are not very peculiar as an in
dividual would not be recognised by any one.
To conclude, | will add that no wife who
loues her husband will ever fail to perceive
faithful likeness of him, however old and ugly
it may appear and that the artist who can
FAITHFULLY represent an easy likeness can
always, with as good an opportunity, represent
equally well to wife, a husband, or anybody
else, difficult one. Yours, most truly,
H. Powers.
Rey. Lemuel G.. Ol,nstead.