Village books

Heatherley's
Holiday," hung on the line in 1874. He left it by his will to his
college friend Jason Smith, whose representatives, after his death,
in 1910, gave it to the nation and it is now in the National Gallery
of British Art. Mr. Heatherley never went away for a holiday; he
once had to go out of town on business and did not return till the
next day; one of the students asked him how he had got on, saying no
doubt he had enjoyed the change and that he must have found it
refreshing to sleep for once out of London.
"No," said Heatherley, "I did not like it. Country air has no
body."
The consequence was that, whenever there was a holiday and the
school was shut, Heatherley employed the time in mending the
skeleton; Butler's picture represents him so engaged in a corner of
the studio. In this way he got his model for nothing. Sometimes he
hung up a looking-glass near one of his windows and painted his own
portrait. Many of these he painted out, but after his death we
found a little store of them in his rooms, some of the early ones
very curious.


Pages:
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42