‘What style of ornament is most suitable for the fan?’ asks Charles Blanc, who draws attention to the fact of the pleats breaking up or distorting the design or picture. Our author suggests as a possible way out of this difficulty ‘that each pleat or fold should have a separate subject, or, at least, that the subject be so arranged that the pleats have relation to each other, as, a Watteau harlequin kissing his hand to a columbine, a Leander quarrelling with Isabelle, these being placed on blades that in refolding would reunite the lovers and reconcile the disputants. But to develop a graceful subject on a series of projecting and retreating angles, all more or less acute, would be a waste of labour. Is it not better to use in these cases a different or a radiating ornament? Is it not better to scatter over a fan a charmingly discordant arrangement of pictures and colours, or even to place isolated subjects between the folds, in order that elegant women, in manipulating their fans, may have twenty opportunities of showing in each fancy group the artist’s talent, and at the same time, of displaying some special charm of their own—a pretty hand, a well-turned arm, or beautiful eyes?’[174] Our author has drawn attention, in his light and charming way, to a difficulty which is practically insuperable; there is nothing new in this suggestion of decorating each pleat with a separate subject, or of a consecutive series of subjects. Many instances of its application might be cited; some are given in this work, notably the Italian fan of mica, in which subdivision is carried to its utmost limit. But we must not take our author _too_ seriously, and although his suggested fan, if carried out, would be a most exquisite experience, especially if drawn with the power of a Gavarni, or designed with the skill of a Sambourne or a Caran d’Ache, the opportunity afforded to the painter by the full space of the mount far outweighs any slight disturbance of the design caused by the pleating; moreover, is it not a fact that silk, the material most favoured by modern artists, which, when prepared with rice size and stretched, offers as suitable a material as could be desired for the free play of the brush, opens out to practically a flat surface? George Augustus Sala has referred to the fan painted by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt with the subject of the ‘Triumph of Love,’ as marking the period of the English revival of fan painting, and as a striking exemplification of the folly of assuming that a great artist derogates from the dignity of his calling by painting fans. He may stoop, indeed, says this author felicitously, but it will be to conquer!