PORTRAIT PAINTING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 963, 7 June 1883, Page 4

PORTRAIT PAINTING.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Timaru Herald writes,;—Portrait painting, as practised .in? muk be a lucrative pursuit, and no doubt I after the revelations made in the County Court a day or two ago a “novel ”,may -sojon be>expected to be started, “ projected ” by juries of four and County Court judges. . A lady in Richmond desirous of perpetuating the memoVy of her defunct spouse, on “ undying canvas,” agreed with a dealer that a portrait in oils should be painted from a photograph ot her liege lord. The price was to be twelve guineas, of which four were! paid' as a deposit, the balance being playable on the complevjpjhofr the picture, :Some agreement. The lengthened time allowed for finishing the work of art being due to the fact that it was to be'ehtrasted to' the.’diatrdsv'Df ariartist" inGerinany.” When the “ counterfeit ” presentment of the lamented departed was ready, the widow failed l© recognise: the lineaments of the one who had been so dear to her in life,ifnd. refused to accept delivery.and pa£thV‘guineas reunlike nMieavfen or ""the* earth beim iflibi4||i ii itiT~~ nniir flir --n'-■ The Court 'ordered, notwithstanding the refusal of. :the '! plaintiff,' to. give the name of the “ German ” artist, that the picture should be accepted and paid for. I -have more than a suspicion'that "China'”' should he..substituted for Germany as the birthplace of the painting, that Hong Kong is the locale of its manufacture, and Ah Sin the patronymic of the wielder of the brush. The price at which pictures, life size, are enlarged and painted is six shillings, and barring a tendency td reader the* visual organs of their subjects like unto those of the almondeyed race, and to impart a generally “ celestial ” expressions to the s countenance, the copyist’s *w6rk Is fairly done.' But j.twelve guineas for a six-shilling painting is “coming it a little too Strong.” Why, it beats Herman’s fourteen hundred per ceiit. odt and out.