_Jacob Huysman_ (Dutch: 1656-1696).
Huysman was one of the many foreign artists who settled in
England under the Stuarts. He obtained considerable employment
as a portrait painter, in spite of Sir Peter Lely's rivalry;
one of the portraits among the "Windsor Beauties," now at
Hampton Court, was painted by him.
A portrait of the retired city hosier who became famous as the author
of the _Complete Angler_. It was painted for his family (with whom
it remained till it was presented to the National Gallery in 1838),
and was engraved in one of the later editions of the book (1836).
Izaak Walton--"that quaint, old, cruel coxcomb" (as Byron, who was no
fisherman, called him)--lived to be ninety: his fishing did something,
one may expect, to keep him in the vigorous health which is here
stamped on his face. "The features of the countenance often enable us,"
says Zouch in the _Memoirs of Izaak Walton_ (cited in M. E. Wotton's
_Word Portraits of Famous Writers_, p. 323), "to form a judgment, not
very fallible, of the disposition of the mind. In few portraits can
this discovery be more successfully pursued than in that of Izaak
Walton. Lavater, the acute master of physiognomy, would, I think,
instantly acknowledge in it the decisive traits of the original,--mild
complacency, forbearance, mature consideration, calm activity, peace,
sound understanding, power of thought, discerning attention, and
secretly active friendship. Happy in his unblemished integrity, happy
in the approbation and esteem of others, he enwraps himself in his own
virtue. The exaltation of a good conscience eminently shines forth in
this venerable person."