“A cunning old gossip—that is the impression produced by this Voltaire, at once so lively, so sickly, and so little masculine.” After a moment of contemplation he continued: “The eyes! I always come back to them. They are transparent. They are luminous. “But you can say as much of all busts by Houdon. This sculptor understood how to render the transparency of the pupils better than any painter or pastellist. He perforated them, bored them, cut them out; he cleverly raised a certain unevenness in them which, catching or losing the light, gives a singular effect and imitates the sparkle of life in the pupil. And what diversity in the expression of the eyes of all these faces! Cunning in Voltaire, good fellowship in Franklin, authority in Mirabeau, gravity in Washington, joyous tenderness in Madame Houdon, roguishness in his daughter and in the two charming little Brongniart children. To this sculptor the glance is more than half the expression. Through the eyes he read souls. They kept no secrets from him. So there is no need to ask if his busts were good likenesses.” At that word I stopped Rodin. “You consider, then, that resemblance is a very important quality?” “Certainly; indispensable.” “Yet many artists say that busts and portraits can be very fine without being good likenesses. I remember a remark on this subject attributed to Henner. A lady complained to him that the portrait which he had painted of her did not look like her. “‘Hé! Matame,’ he replied in his Alsatian jargon, ‘when you are dead your heirs will think themselves fortunate to possess a fine portrait by Henner and will trouble themselves very little to know if it was like you or not.’” “It is possible that the painter said that,” Rodin answered, “but it was doubtless a sally which did not represent his real thought, for I do not believe that he had such false ideas in an art in which he showed great talent. “But first let us understand the kind of resemblance demanded in a bust or portrait. “If the artist only reproduces superficial features as photography does, if he copies the lineaments of a face exactly, without reference to character, he deserves no admiration. The resemblance which he ought to obtain is that of the soul; that alone matters; it is that which the sculptor or painter should seek beneath the mask of features. “In a word, all the features must be expressive—that is to say, of use in the revelation of a conscience.” “But doesn’t it sometimes happen that the face contradicts the soul?” “Never.” “Have you forgotten the precept of La Fontaine, ‘Il ne faut point juger les gens sur l’apparence’?” [Illustration: EGYPTIAN SPARROW-HAWK _See page 180_ ] [Illustration: MLLE. BRONGNIART By Houdon ]