The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-04-24
ONES IDEAL FACE.
IErom once o Week.)

! a,tists who have had much practice in por-
trait painting. They will tell you that nearly
| every man (and every woman, also, though
perhaps in lesser degree,) has in his mind
an imaginary picture OF hs own face, which
differs in O most striking degree from his real
| face. 1t is not that every man considers him
| self handsomer than he is; for in cases con-
| stantly occurring man is disappointed with
| his portrait because he fancies it obviously
fiatters him, and because he fancies his friends
| will be amused by his having paid for the fiat
| terry. On the contrary, the ideal face may have
weakness where the real face has strength,
and coarsoness where the real face has refine
ment:. The preference which people who have
no artistic training, and consequently no knowl-
| edge Of the respective methods of treatment,
| exhibit for portraits in oil over photographs
may be partly traced to this cause. The cru
any casa give the ideal portrait. This they
know, and many are the complaints directed
against the vulgar error OF supposing that
photography is OF any value in portrait linn
ing. But in the case OF o portrait III Oil, there
! come in innumerable chances. Instead OF the
blind working Of machine, we have human
| agency, with its receptive and reproductive
faculties; and who knows but that the ideal
tace-which is to the gentleman in question
his real face may be hit upon? He has tried
photography in vain. He is familiar with the
face which photography persists in giving him.
1t is not his face. He cannot account for the
consistency Of various cameras, but it is not
his face. Therefore he says to himself that he
will abandon these mechanical appliances, and
|
to catch his real features, his real expression.
| The genius OF the portrait painter will seize
| the true points of appearance, and properly
| transfer them to canvas.
painter, to whom he comes with his impossi-
| bic request. For It is tho purpose of portrait
in oil to be truer than any photograph can be-
pressed by the harsh process Of photography
to translate and render apparent and perma-
nent the f1eeting changes Of characteristic ex-
g. 49,
mera IF the photograph was truth, this
portrait in oil is truth vlviied; but the gentle-
man in search Of his ideal face is not a bit
better pleased. He accepts the portrait as
dissatisfied when his friends tell him it is re-
markably good. After dinner he sits and looks
at it as if the immovable hgure in the frame
were an importinent stranger who was post ed
there to annoy him with his perpetual smile
and his stiff and glossy hair. We are suppos-
ing just now, be it observed, that the portrait
in oil is really a good one, When it is bad,
friends are likely to feel uncomfortable in re-
garding it. There is always something more
hideonsly absurd in @ bad oil painting than in
bad photograph. The camera often misrep-
the nature Of bad portrait painter to intro
duce, against his WILL comic element into his
painful efforts. man who is anxious to tame
his carnal pride should have his portrait
painted by dozen ffth-rate artists, should
lock these travesties Of himself up in room
by themselves, and visit the collection for
few minutes every forenoon. hair shirt and
Cruel for dinner would be o feeble penance
compared with this daily humbling OF the proud
spirit.
What is the cause Of this odd mistake
about their personal appearance under which
most people labor--a mistake which survives
the daily argument of the looking glass, the
assertions of friends, the verdicts Of the pen
oil and the camera? We believe the halluci-
nation to arise from combination of causes
thama0Vaa
man is possessed of an ideal self. There is
either something he believes himself to be, or
something which he would like to be, and
which he is not. He plucks the heroisms out
Of this or that character in history, or in fic-
tion, or in his own acquaintance, and clothes
himself with these borrowed plumes. He
the gallant bearing Of Ivanhoe. or the bit er
wit and tenderness of the suffering Heine.
Dwelling upon the characteristics III other peo-
pie which they most love. men begin uncon-
sciously to initiate them. The week school
| boy, who sinks away from the rough gambols
OF his playmates. reads in q corner some novel
| himself muscular miracle, with the fine po-
tence of six feet eight. The fat and elderly
farmer. doing over Tristram Shandy, fancies
in that he is able to see the sly humor, and fun
of the successive quips, Jokes and insinua-
tions. From hundred different sources we
drink in impressions of characters unlike our
that, or SO much OF this, until we have
built up very pretty monster, whom we re-
gard as our own image, II q man were hon
estly to sit down: and describe his character
mmutely-H he were TO accurately sit down
what he considers it's potentialities and limits,
it's good active qualities. and its latent virtues
he would produce composition sufficient to
make universe split with laughter.
Now this imaginary hero whom every man
constructs must have his corresponding face.
He must have features to express these noble
qualities, and give token to his neighbor that
face is constructed, and accepted as fact.
All these processes, be it remarked, go
on unconsciously, 80 that the acting thau-
imagines that, possessing the strongest sym
pathies with this or that virtue, this or that
form of character, his face must reveal the
presence Of these postulated qualities. II he
Take the case If young man who, Of smooth
vsage and open disposition, has been struck
by some ByrOnic portrait of gloom and des-
pair. He chooses one out Of that gallery Of
feels that he, too, is such man. Being such
a man, shall he not show it in his face? So he
begins to fancy that his smooth countenance is
IN reality full Of burning scorn, and moody
melancholy, and impatient selishness. He
feels himself en- rapport with these phases OF
mental colOring, and his face must b3 an inI
dex to his thoughts. He has no longer the
polished features Of g raw Adonis: but the
the Corsalr.
And there is another branch to the subject.
Many peoples faces are grossly at fault IN in
pie, actually do possess. George Ehot's epi-
gram about the want Of connection between
long eyelashes and the moral sense has become
proverbial; and while goodly number OF en-
thusiastst ichiefy womeD) try TO persuade them
selves that they can easily tell man by his
face, we have, generally, arrived at the conclu-
sion that any such SYSTEM o. of,interpretation is
ders. Indeed, one OF the fine arts Of society is
the cultivation Of monotony in appearance, 40
that you shall not be able to tell Che difference
between Tom. Dick and Harry. whom they git
down to dinner, with the same shirt front, the.
same parting Of the har, "a ..as Same snootn cnin
and appropriate ENoHstache, the same air Of