The Vienna galleries : giving a brief history of the public and private galleries of Vienna ; with a critical description of the paintings therein contained . thatit is impossible to say who else could havepainted it. This picture is the Laughing Boy (No. 613.Plate IX), one of those strongly characteristic typeswhich the master loved to paint when not occupiedwith his royal commissions. The portraits by Velasquez baffle description andpraise. When we gaze upon these paintings welook into a room, into the reflection of a mirror, intoopen space — and we see a human being, alive,breathing, real.
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The Vienna galleries : giving a brief history of the public and private galleries of Vienna ; with a critical description of the paintings therein contained . thatit is impossible to say who else could havepainted it. This picture is the Laughing Boy (No. 613.Plate IX), one of those strongly characteristic typeswhich the master loved to paint when not occupiedwith his royal commissions. The portraits by Velasquez baffle description andpraise. When we gaze upon these paintings welook into a room, into the reflection of a mirror, intoopen space — and we see a human being, alive, breathing, real. This genius among painters owedlittle to the example of any man. From the firsthe was a realist, seeing with his own eyes, goinghis own way. Even when Rubens was in Madridand painted in the studio of Velasquez where theSpaniard must have watched the great Fleming anumber of times — Rubens even, notwithstandinghis resplendent and overwhelming power, did nothave the least influence upon him. He remainedtrue to his own originality, gradually and quietlymaturing his power of execution, running a simplecourse of evolution from beginning to end, without. VELASQUEZ LAUGHING BOY Plate ix Imperial Museum Ube ffrencb an& Spantsb paintings 79 ever seeking to alter his style, or to improve thequality of his realism. The four portraits by his own hand which I havepointed out have that striking relief and perfectsolidity of real beings; and the marvellous en-velopment of air with which he surrounds themgives a peculiar intensity of illusion and appearanceof life. His cardinal quality may also be studiedin these portraits. Velasquez was the suprememaster of values — that is, painting the same colourunder varying intensity of light. And he does thisso unobtrusively, with such precision and certainty, as no man ever had done, or has done since. Thequestion will never be settled, who was the greatestportrait painter who ever lived — a futile questionat any rate. But it must be conceded th