2-888-784 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Too Truthful - painted by A. Solomon, 1850. Painting '...from the Middle Room of the Royal Academy Exhibition [in London], [which] illustrates a by no means uncommon artistic difficulty - that of pleasing a sitter - whose full-blown vanity is equally prominent in the composition. It stands in the catalogue: 525. "Too Truthful. So very like a painter drew, That every eye the picture knew: He hit complexion, feature, air, So just, the life itself was there. He gave each muscle all its strength, The mouth, the chin, the nose's length; His honest pencil touch'd with truth, And marked the date of age and youth. He lost his friends, his practice failed; Truth should not always be revealed." [John] Gay. This picture is...a very charmingly characteristic scene. The displeasure of the grandee, the chuckle of his wife, the anxious painter, and his still more solicitous wife...are all admirably portrayed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.