Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

So7?ie Portraits by Raeburn 209
Gow with his fiddle, Doctor Spens shooting
an arrow, or Lord Bannatyne hearing a
cause. Above all, from this point of view,
the portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Lyon is
notable. A strange enough young man,
pink, fat about the lower part of the face,
with a lean forehead, a narrow nose and a fine
nostril, sits with a drawing-board upon his
knees. He has just paused to render him-
self account of some difficulty, to disentangle
some complication of line or compare neigh-
bouring values. And there, without any
perceptible wrinkling, you have rendered for
you exactly the fixed look in the eyes, and
the unconscious compression of the mouth,
that befit and signify an effort of the kind.
The whole pose, the whole expression, is
absolutely direct and simple. You are ready
to take your oath to it that Colonel Lyon
had no idea he was sitting for his picture,
and thought of nothing in the world besides
his own occupation of the moment.
Although the collection did not embrace,
I understand, nearly the whole of Raeburn's