Sir D. Wilkie, in his remarks on Portrait Painting, says:--No
representations of female character have equalled in sweetness and
beauty the female portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds; yet, a contemporary
has remarked, that this was accomplished greatly at the expense of
likeness. Hoppner, who was himself distinguished for the beauty with
which he endowed the female form, remarked, that even to him it was a
matter of surprise that Reynolds could send home portraits with so
little resemblance to the originals. This, indeed, in his day,
occasioned portraits to be left on his hands, or turned to the wall,
which, since the means of comparing resemblances have ceased, have
blazed forth in all the splendour of grace and elegance, which the
originals would have been envied for had they ever possessed them. I may
add to this what is remarked of Sir Thomas Lawrence: his likenesses were
celebrated as the most successful of his time; yet, no likenesses
exalted so much or refined more upon the originals. He wished to seize
the expression, rather than copy the features. His attainment of
likeness was most laborious: one distinguished person, who favoured him
with forty sittings for his head alone, declared he was the slowest
painter he had ever sat to, and he had sat to many.
This distinguished person, (says Burnet, in his _Practical Essays_,) I
believe, was Sir Walter Scott. The picture was painted for his Majesty,
and Lawrence was most anxious to make the picture the best of any
painted from so celebrated a character. At other times, however, Sir
Thomas was as dexterous with his pencil as any artist. I remember him
mentioning that he painted the portrait of Curran, the celebrated Irish
barrister, in one day; he came in the morning, remained to dinner, and
left at dusk; or, as Lawrence expressed it, quoting his favourite
author,
“From morn till noon,
From noon to dewy eve.”