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The art of portrait  painting in oil  colours

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The art of portrait painting

in oil colours

WITH  OBSERVATIONS  ON  SETTING AND  PAINTING THE FIGURE

BY

HENRY MURRAY, F.S.A.

ALTHOUGH Portrait Painting is sometimes regarded as but an inferior branch of the fine arts, yet it is nevertheless a fact that but few of its professors ever attain to signal eminence. If we endeavour to call to mind the roll of its most distinguished masters in this country, from Holbein to our own Millais, we shall find the list far from being a lengthy one, as compared with the catalogue of those whose names are as household words in other branches of art. It is no part of our purpose to discuss the question why this is so ; but it is an undeniable fact that it is a very difficult task to endow a head with thought and lips with language, and to portray benevolence, magnanimity, and all the other virtues which beam forth in the human face divine. Our purpose is rather to indicate some of the difficulties which the student must inevitably encounter, and to offer such practical assistance as will enable him to overcome them and achieve that success which should be the object of his efforts.

1. POINTS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

2. FIDELITY OF RESEMBLANCE

3. THE SKETCH

4. THE ECONOMY OF THE PALETTE

5. THE PALETTE FOR THE FIRST PAINTING

6. VEHICLES AND MEDIUMS

7. THE FIRST PAINTING

8. THE HAIR

9. PRACTICAL RECAPITULATION OF THE FIRST PAINTING

10. THE PREPARATION  FOR THE SECOND PAINTING

11. PALETTE FOR THE SECOND AND THIRD PAINTINGS

12. INCIDENTAL TINTS

13. THE SECOND PAINTING

14. THE EYE

15. THE MOUTH

16. THE EAR

17. THE HAIR

18. THE NECK AND SHOULDERS

19. THE ARMS AND HANDS

20. ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS

21. THE THIRD AND FINISHING PAINTING

22. REFLEXES

23. THE TREATMENT OF PERSONAL DEFECT

24. HANDLING AND TEXTURE

25. PALETTES FOR BACKGROUNDS

26. METHOD OF PAINTING A PLAIN BACKGROUND

27. RELIEF OF THE HEAD OR THE FIGURE

28. VARIETIES OF METHOD

29. DRAPERIES

30. SETTING THE FIGURE

31. PAINTING THE FIGURE

32. CONCLUSION