I do not intend to extend my remarks generally to foreign portraits, but a few instances suggest themselves as I turn over my portfolios. On two portraits by Mignard of Louis XIV. (of whom there are by various artists about 40 or 50) and Mad. de Maintenon, the following lines were written by Mlle. Bernard, addressed to the painter 'Oui, votre art, je l'avoue, est au dessus du mien, : Mais vous, en deux portraits, nous le faites connoître: Sa valeur, son cœur magnanime: Dans l'autre, on voit son goût à placer son estime. Mignard, by praising well, pleased well. His sitters have all the air of being satisfied with themselves, and the portraits are doubtless very like. His own head, by himself, is fine and unaffected, with full penetrating eyes, chastened by an air of savoir faire and quiet reticence, that would stamp him gentleman among gentlemen. When he painted the portraits noticed above, which was shortly before the secret nuptials, and when Mad. de Maintenon was 47 or 48 years old, he represented the lady as St. Françoise, and he asked the king if he might introduce an ermine mantle (which is heraldically regal) "worthily to adorn the figure.” "Yes," replied the king smiling, "St. Françoise well deserves it!" The pictures were life size, and that of the lady is spoken of by Mad. de Coulange to Mad. de Sévigné, as representing all her character and grace, without any flattery of youth or prettiness which did not belong to her. Thirty years later another portrait of Mad. de Maintenon was painted, and the following lines were composed for it. It is Madame herself who is supposed to speak "L'estime de mon roi m'en acquit la tendresse ; Je l'aimai trente ans sans foiblesse ; Il m'aima trente ans sans remords: Je ne fus ni reine ni maitresse : Mad. de Maintenon herself sometimes made verses; and, as appropriate to the subject in hand, I may mention those addressed to the Abbé Têtu, on seeing a village signboard of the Magdalen, which bore a striking resemblance to the Abbé, a squint in the eye of the Magdalen being an accidental effect not intended by the village Apelles. "Est ce pour flatter ma peine On vous a fait femme et louche, Sans nuire à la vérité !" And as the following lines by the same lady allude to something scarcely more animated than a picture I will add them, as they have more vivacity than their subject: "Deux amans, brûlant du désir de se voir, Que leur plaisir fut grand! il passa leur espoir ! Ils ne surent que dire, et ne surent que faire." Which puts one in mind of the loving lines addressed by a wife to her absent spouse. "Je vous ecris, parceque je n'ai rien a faire Je finis, parceque je n'ai rien à dire !" Among inscriptions should be mentioned that to the portrait of the learned Sigerus. He was at the expense of having a plate engraved in which he was represented kneeling before a crucifix, with a label from his mouth, "Lord Jesus, do you love me?" From that of Jesus proceeded another label. "Yes, most illustrious, most excellent, and most learned Sigerus, crowned poet of his Imperial Majesty, and most worthy rector of the University of Wittenburg; yes, I love you!" Which, after all, is scarcely less impious or profane, than the various labels and inscriptions we find in the print of Charles I. engraved by White, and prefixed to the "Vindicia Carolinæ, or a defence of Eikon Basilike." Portraits sometimes speak praises themselves, as when Le Brun, painting his own portrait, introduced also that of his earliest patron; or they tell by pictorial pun what without words could not well be told, as when the name of John Booker, Astrologer and writing-master of Hadleigh, who published an Almanack, is given in his portrait by the introduction of a book with a large R on it! Also sometimes by the means of "accessories some clue is given to the profession or distinguishing merit of the person painted. Thus Maupertuis, the mathematician, is represented in a Lapland dress, with a globe and chart by him, and other illustrations of his career. In this print after Tournière, engraved by Daullé 1741, and a fine bit of engraving it is, we have a good specimen of the "portrait verses" so commonly met with at this period. These lines are by Voltaire, and allude to the globe as well as to the world which inhabits it! "Ce Globe mal connu qu'il a su mesurer This portrait of Maupertuis, which I have noticed here on account of the verses by Voltaire, is interesting in many respects. It is not everybody who knows who Maupertuis was, and as I have only recently myself made his acquaintance, and altogether from the friendly offices of M. Daullé, I think such of my readers who may not already be of his set' will thank me for an introduction. PierreLouis Moreau de Maupertuis was born at St. Malo in the year 1698. He held a commission in the French army as Captain of Dragoons, but becoming devoted to mathematics and astronomy, he quitted the army and cultivated science so ardently that, in 1723, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Paris, and in 1727 became a member of the Royal Society of London. In 1736 he started for Lapland, at the head of a commission deputed by the Academy, to measure an arc of the meridian, which, with the help of instruments, more perfect than any then in use, made by Graham of London, was effected in the following year, and the result was published by him in 1738. The effect of this was to confirm the opinion of Newton against that of Descartes as to the figure of the earth; and it will be observed in the portrait-so cleverly painted by Tournière-that Maupertuis is pressing down the poles of the globe |