Dr. Waagen relates the following singular anecdote of one of the
portraits in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle--that of the
minister, William von Humboldt. The conception is poor, and the likeness
very general; but the want is, that the body does not at all suit the
head; for when king George the Fourth, who was a personal friend of the
minister, during his last visit to England, and a short time before his
departure, made him sit to Sir Thomas Lawrence, the latter being pressed
for time, took a canvass on which he had begun a portrait of Lord
Liverpool, and had already finished his body in a purple coat, and
painted upon it the head of M. Von Humboldt, intending to alter it
afterwards. This, however, in consequence of the death of the king, and
of Sir Thomas Lawrence, was not done.