_Portrait of Sir P. Sidney, by Paul Veronese._--In the letters of Sir P.
Sidney which I found at Hamburg, and which were published by Pickering,
1845, it is stated that a portrait of Sidney was painted by Paul
Veronese, at Venice, for Herbert Languet. It would be very interesting
to discover the existence of this picture.
Languet had it with him at Prague, _framed_, as he asserts, and hung up
in his room, in the year 1575. He remarks upon it, in one place, that it
represented Sidney as too young (he was nineteen when it was taken); in
another place he says that it has given him too sad an expression. I
should add, that on Languet's death, his property passed into the hands
of his friend Du Plessis.
I am led to write to you on this subject, by having observed, a few days
since, in the collection at Blenheim, two portraits by Paul Veronese, of
persons unknown. There may be many such, and that of Sir Philip Sidney
may yet be identified.