by Mark Twain
PORTRAIT OF KING WILLIAM III
I never can look at those periodical portraits in _The Galaxy_ magazinewithout feeling a wild, tempestuous ambition to be an artist. I haveseen thousands and thousands of pictures in my time--acres of them hereand leagues of them in the galleries of Europe--but never any that movedme as these portraits do.
There is a portrait of Monsignore Capel in the November number, now_could_ anything be sweeter than that? And there was Bismarck's, in theOctober number; who can look at that without being purer and strongerand nobler for it? And Thurlow and Weed's picture in the Septembernumber; I would not have died without seeing that, no, not for anythingthis world can give. But look back still further and recall my ownlikeness as printed in the August number; if I had been in my grave athousand years when that appeared, I would have got up and visited theartist.
I sleep with all these portraits under my pillow every night, so that Ican go on studying them as soon as the day dawns in the morning. I knowthem all as thoroughly as if I had made them myself; I know every lineand mark about them. Sometimes when company are present I shuffle theportraits all up together, and then pick them out one by one and calltheir names, without referring to the printing on the bottom. I seldommake a mistake--never, when I am calm.
I have had the portraits framed for a long time, waiting till my auntgets everything ready for hanging them up in the parlor. But first onething and then another interferes, and so the thing is delayed. Once shesaid they would have more of the peculiar kind of light they needed inthe attic. The old simpleton! it is as dark as a tomb up there. But shedoes not know anything about art, and so she has no reverence for it.When I showed her my "Map of the Fortifications of Paris," she said itwas rubbish.
Well, from nursing those portraits so long, I have come at last to havea perfect infatuation for art. I have a teacher now, and my enthusiasmcontinually and tumultuously grows, as I learn to use with more andmore facility the pencil, brush, and graver. I am studying under DeMellville, the house and portrait painter. (His name was Smith when helived in the West.) He does any kind of artist work a body wants, havinga genius that is universal, like Michael Angelo. Resembles that greatartist, in fact. The back of his head is like his, and he wears hishat-brim tilted down on his nose to expose it.
I have been studying under De Mellville several months now. The firstmonth I painted fences, and gave general satisfaction. The next month Iwhite-washed a barn. The third, I was doing tin roofs; the forth, commonsigns; the fifth, statuary to stand before cigar shops. This presentmonth is only the sixth, and I am already in portraits!
The humble offering which accompanies these remarks (see figure)--theportrait of his Majesty William III., King of Prussia--is my fifthattempt in portraits, and my greatest success. It has received unboundedpraise from all classes of the community, but that which gratifies memost is the frequent and cordial verdict that it resembles the _Galaxy_portraits. Those were my first love, my earliest admiration, theoriginal source and incentive of my art-ambition. Whatever I am in Arttoday, I owe to these portraits. I ask no credit for myself--I deservenone. And I never take any, either. Many a stranger has come to myexhibition (for I have had my portrait of King William on exhibition atone dollar a ticket), and would have gone away blessing_ me_, if I hadlet him, but I never did. I always stated where I got the idea.
King William wears large bushy side-whiskers, and some critics havethought that this portrait would be more complete if they were added.But it was not possible. There was not room for side-whiskers andepaulets both, and so I let the whiskers go, and put in the epaulets,for the sake of style. That thing on his hat is an eagle. The Prussianeagle--it is a national emblem. When I say hat I mean helmet; but itseems impossible to make a picture of a helmet that a body can haveconfidence in.
I wish kind friends everywhere would aid me in my endeavor to attract alittle attention to the _Galaxy _portraits. I feel persuaded it can beaccomplished, if the course to be pursued be chosen with judgment. Iwrite for that magazine all the time, and so do many abler men, and ifI can get these portraits into universal favor, it is all I ask; thereading-matter will take care of itself.
