Anonymous French Artist Porta San Paolo, Rome ca. 1750-1800 oil on canvas Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
Louis Gauffier Portrait of Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet, in Florence 1794 oil on canvas Battle Abbey, Sussex |
Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes Mercury and Argus 1793 oil on panel Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
Anonymous French Artist Portrait of a Lady ca. 1770 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
Anne Vallayer-Coster Portrait of an Elderly Lady with her Daughter 1775 oil on canvas Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
from The Wings of the Dove
That fact the lady of Lancaster Gate had up to this moment, as we know, enshrouded, and her friend's quick question had produced a change in her face. She blinked – then looked at the question hard; after which, whether she had inadvertently betrayed herself or had only reached a decision and then been affected by the quality of Mrs. Stringham's surprise, she accepted all results. What took place in her for Susan Shepherd was not simply that she made the best of them, but that she suddenly saw more in them to her purpose than she could have imagined. A certain impatience in fact marked in her this transition: she had been keeping back, very hard, an important truth, and wouldn't have liked to hear that she hadn't concealed it cleverly. Susie nevertheless felt herself pass as not a little of a fool with her for not having thought of it. What Susie indeed, however, most thought of at present, in the quick, new light of it, was the wonder of Kate's dissimulation. She had time for that view while she waited for an answer to her cry. "Kate thinks she cares. But she's mistaken. And no one knows it." These things, distinct and responsible, were Mrs. Lowder's retort. Yet they weren't all of it. "You don't know it – that must be your line. Or rather your line must be that you deny it utterly."
"Deny that she cares for him?"
"Deny that she so much as thinks that she does. Positively and absolutely. Deny that you've so much as heard of it."
Susie faced this new duty. "To Milly, you mean – if she asks?"
"To Millie, naturally. No one else will ask."
Well," said Mrs. Stringham after a moment, "Milly won't."
Mrs. Lowder wondered. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, the more I think of it. And luckily for me. I lie badly."
"I lie well, thank God."
– Henry James (1902)
Anne Vallayer-Coster Garden Still Life with Bust of Ceres 1774 oil on canvas National Trust, Basildon Park, Berkshire |
Jacques-Joachim Soignie Still Life ca. 1770 oil on canvas Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art |
attributed to Louis-Gabriel Blanchet Portrait of the painter James Barry ca. 1766-70 oil on canvas Royal Society of Arts, London |
Anonymous French Artist Self Portrait ca. 1725-75 oil on canvas Bristol Museum and Art Gallery |
Jacques-Henri Sablet The Happy Family 1793 oil on canvas Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
Jacques-Henri Sablet The Fortune Teller 1784-85 oil on canvas Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
follower of Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée Diana and Endymion ca. 1760-65 oil on canvas (overdoor) Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
follower of Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée Two Muses ca. 1760-65 oil on canvas (overdoor) Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
Pierre-Jacques Volaire Vesuvius erupting at Night ca. 1770-80 oil on canvas Compton Verney, Warwickshire |
Pierre-Jacques Volaire Eruption of Vesuvius by Moonlight 1774 oil on canvas Compton Verney, Warwickshire |