One of the finest examples of preserving beauty, even in maturity, is
given in Niobe, the mother.
“In early life, at a rout, (says Haydon,) I admired and followed, during
the evening, a mother and her daughters, distinguished for their beauty.
The mother did not look old, and yet looked the mother. On scrutinizing
and comparing mother and daughters, I found there was a little double
chin in the mother, which marked her, without diminishing her beauty. I
went at once, on my return to my studio, to the Niobe mother, and found
_this very mark_ in the Niobe mother, which I had never observed before,
under her chin.”