Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-10-31
PAINTING THE HAND.

Artists Rarely Succeed In Getting True tt
Nature In One Particular.
We say without hesitation that in the
art of portraiture no portion of the work
is usually SO neglected as the hand
With the representation Of the face il
appears to be considered that the design
is practically ended, and the hands,
like the remaining part of the picture,
are looked upon in the light of being
mere matters of detail Lely, Vandyke,
Reynolds and Lawrence, with 9th
ers we could name, illustrate in some
of their finest paintings this inexcusa
BILE neglect Of an all important portion
of the human form Such masters were
in the habit of so generalizing that part
of their picture that it bore no reference
to the particular face to which it be.
longed. If we examine the hands OF
Lely's famous Court Beauties al
Hampton court palace or those in al
most all Vandyke's portraits, we find a
conventional treatment that wholly
lacks Individuality, while the hands in
Reynolds pictures were dealt with
with regard to general effect rather
than to any special characteristics.
And yet portrait can only be con-
sidered excellent as a complete repre-
sentation of the original. We are quite
aware of the aversion persons have tc
numerous and repeated sittings and
their apparent willingness to accept
anything as a portrayal of their hands,
provided only in tthe result those hands
are small, pretty and shapely. But there
are at least some worthy exceptions
among the old masters to this dishonest
trucking to the whims of sitters.
Examine Holbein's noble present
ments of Henry VIII, of Erasmus, the
Moore and Rembrant's ever living pic
lures of persons old and young, and you
will find that those never surpassed
painters considered every portion of the
human frame was worthy to be studied
and most carefully reproduced. We
could give many more examples of this,
but those two great masters will suffice
for our purpose.
In the present time, in this age of
artistic haste and faithlessness, our linn
ners appear to be content with anything
that will save themselves and their sit
tiers trouble, and that expressively beau
tiful portion of the body-.the hands
painted with the least possible regard
to truth and nature.
Portrait painting is not patchwork,
so that you can fit in parts of different
bodies in order to make up an accurate
resemblance of one individual, but it
is or should be the elaborate copy of
that being in all his or her parts, por-
lions and details.
1t is worth consideration that those
portraits i'll our national collection and
other galleries, to which we turn with
the highest admiration, are works of
the painters of olden time, who delight
ed i'll the closest possible imitation of
nature with feeling akin to reverence.
1t is no doubt difficulty that sitters
are reluctant to give the time necessary
for proper and complete portraiture,
which involves likeness Of the hand as
well as the face. But rather than slur
over and paint i'll any made up fashion
an all important part of the work we
would venture to suggest the use of an
agent one is almost unwilling to NEIL
ton in connection with the art of por-
traiture, and that is photography. By
that mechanical means, at any rate, an
accurate map of the hands is secured,
and relying upon that as regards form
and character the actual flesh coloring
could be secured in comparatively short
time We might by this means, at any
rate, avoid the absurdity of seeing old
hands pictured on young bodies, and in
other instances hands that have no char
acteristics OF sex represented as belong
ing to both sexes indiscriminately.-
London Queen,