SPOILING IT

New Zealand Tablet, 28 November 1912, Page 62

SPOILING IT

_ A famous art expert was talking at a dinner in Philadelphia about some of Sargent's cruelly realistic portraits. ‘ Sargeant once painted a woman,’ he said, and when the work was finished the lady’s coachman called for it. As the coachman was studying the portrait Sargent called to him: ‘ How do you like it V The man answered thoughtfully: ‘Well, sir, ye might have made it a little better lookin’, mebbe, but if ye had, ye’d have spoilt it.’