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Imaginary Portraits By: Walter Pater (1839-1894) |
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By WALTER HORATIO PATER E text Editor: Alfred J. Drake, Ph.D. Electronic Version 1.0 / Date
10 12 01 NOTES BY THE E TEXT EDITOR: Reliability: Although I have done my best to ensure that the text you
read is error free in comparison with an exact reprint of the standard
edition Macmillan's 1910 Library Edition please exercise scholarly
caution in using it. It is not intended as a substitute for the
printed original but rather as a searchable supplement. My e texts may
prove convenient substitutes for hard to get works in a course where
both instructor and students accept the possibility of some
imperfections in the text, but if you are writing a scholarly article,
dissertation, or book, you should use the standard hard copy editions
of any works you cite. Pagination and Paragraphing: To avoid an unwieldy electronic copy, I
have transferred original pagination to brackets. A bracketed numeral
such as [22] indicates that the material immediately following the
number marks the beginning of the relevant page. I have preserved
paragraph structure except for first line indentation. Hyphenation: I have not preserved original hyphenation since an e text
does not require line end or page end hyphenation. Greek typeface: For this full text edition, I have transliterated
Pater's Greek quotations. If there is a need for the original Greek,
it can be viewed at my site, http://www.ajdrake.com/etexts, a
Victorianist archive that contains the complete works of Walter Pater
and many other nineteenth century texts, mostly in first editions. CONTENTS
I. A Prince of Court Painters: 3 44 II. Denys L'Auxerrois: 45 77 III. Sebastian Van Storck: 79 115 IV. Duke Carl of Rosenmold: 117 153
IMAGINARY PORTRAITS
I. A PRINCE OF COURT PAINTERS
EXTRACTS FROM AN OLD FRENCH JOURNAL
Valenciennes, September 1701. [5] They have been renovating my father's large workroom. That
delightful, tumble down old place has lost its moss grown tiles and the
green weather stains we have known all our lives on the high
whitewashed wall, opposite which we sit, in the little sculptor's yard,
for the coolness, in summertime. Among old Watteau's work people came
his son, "the genius," my father's godson and namesake, a dark haired
youth, whose large, unquiet eyes seemed perpetually wandering to the
various drawings which lie exposed here. My father will have it that
he is a genius indeed, and a painter born. We have had our September
Fair in the Grande Place, a wonderful stir of sound and colour in the
wide, open space beneath our windows. And just where the crowd was
busiest young Antony was found, hoisted into one of those empty niches
of the old Hôtel de Ville, sketching the scene to the life, but with a
[6] kind of grace a marvellous tact of omission, as my father pointed
out to us, in dealing with the vulgar reality seen from one's own
window which has made trite old Harlequin, Clown, and Columbine, seem
like people in some fairyland; or like infinitely clever tragic actors,
who, for the humour of the thing, have put on motley for once, and are
able to throw a world of serious innuendo into their burlesque looks,
with a sort of comedy which shall be but tragedy seen from the other
side. He brought his sketch to our house to day, and I was present
when my father questioned him and commended his work. But the lad
seemed not greatly pleased, and left untasted the glass of old Malaga
which was offered to him. His father will hear nothing of educating
him as a painter. Yet he is not ill to do, and has lately built
himself a new stone house, big and grey and cold. Their old plastered
house with the black timbers, in the Rue des Cardinaux, was prettier;
dating from the time of the Spaniards, and one of the oldest in
Valenciennes. October 1701. Chiefly through the solicitations of my father, old Watteau has
consented to place Antony with a teacher of painting here. I meet him
betimes on the way to his lessons, as I return from Mass; for he still
works with the masons, [7] but making the most of late and early hours,
of every moment of liberty... Continue reading book >>
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