The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-12-21
MEN WITH EYES OF ANIMALS
In Great Demand Among Artists of
Europe as the Best
Models.

II is common enough to hear some
one described as having face "like a
monkey" "a dog" or "a bird" and in
cases where this description is fairly
accurate the chief resemblance may
generally be traced to the expression
of the eyes of the individual in ques-
ton, says London paper.
Some men possess animal eyes"
which defy disguise, and which are al
ways liable to prejudice their owners
chances throughout life. That this.
however, is by no means invariably the
case is evident by solicitor with
nice practice in the north of England
who ascribes much of his prosperity to
a look of profound wisdom which has
gained for him many clients, but which,
undoubtedly, is lent to what would 9TH
erwise be q somewhat commonplace
countenance by paid of FOWL eyes"
In humber spheres of life, too, it is
by no means only the ladies who use
their eyes to their own advantage. At
least three men who have come under
the writer's notice (and there are pos
sibly more like them) earn to this day
precarious livelihood by sitting to
animal painters All three have come
down in the world" and one is unknown
to the other two.
The first mentioned went wrong and
emigrated years ago to Canada, where
he found his level on the waterside at
Montreal.
According to his own story. he was
on the verge of starvation when one
evening he was accosted by French
Canadian artist, who asked him wheth-
er he cared to earn dollar by coming
to his studio and sitting to him for half
an hour.
Only when the painting, very large
one, was completed did the unfortunate
model discover that the picture was
study in farn-yard life and that the
hateful and all-too-familiar expression
in his own eyes had been transferred
faithfully to the optics of a pig on the
canvas
The other men with peculiar eyes who
earn living by sitting to animal paint
ers are also expatriated Englishmen.
The writer met both in Paris in the
winter of 1897. One of them had dog
eyes," while the other wore the express
sion of cat. Both are we'll known to
be Bohemian jewellers in the Latin
quarter.
1t would, indeed, appear that models
possessing dog eyes" are met with by
no means infrequently in Italy and
other Latin countries.
The following interesting extract is
taken from letter writtea by a popu-
lar novelist, and addressed to the writer
from Rome some time ago:
"In Florence met one Boutempi, who
got his living by posing to Matarazzo,
the well-known animal painter. Dogs
were his speciality. He had their ex-
preston, that log-lfke fidelity of eye
which one admires so much in the pic
lures Of the great Landseer. 1t was
easy to believe him, for, indeed, he
looked more canine than human. and
when kindly spoken to one might al
most fancy him wagging grateful
tail"
In 1895 there was employed as half
porter at the Hotel Alliance Oporto a
middle-aged individual who claimed to
have been Roman Catholic priest in
the early days of his life This man was
clean shaver and possessed extraor-
binary eyes, about which there was
something" vaguely suggestive Of
the expression seen in the eyes of more
than one species of wild animals AS
a matter of fact, the hall porter was in
the habit of Sitting on occasions to
Joaquine Da Costa, a painter of wild
animals of rather more than local re-
pute.