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her arms are short, with hands to fit them, and she has no throat; but so cleverly has the painter used his materials, that until we look into matters with the indiscreet eye of the inquiring critic, we see none of this. The almost smooth expanse of white satin is so skillfully broken at the edges, the mantle[?] is brought round in such a cleverly supplementary way that we get a play of line which satisfies the eye without perverting fact. Especially dexterous, or sensitive, is the setting on of the head. Its apparent size is reduced by prolonging the line of the ruff with a fold of the dress, on the right. The shrewd reading of character, the simplicity of pictorial conception, the combined fallen? and certainty of modeling, the resonance of tone and the somber richness of colour which mark Mrs Cruikshank, outweigh and outlast the more immediate effectiveness of the more conventionally picturesque pictures of his earlier or ?? of his later time. in green ink: Ŧ

in green ink: Ŧ Sir Walter Armstrong

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