Chapter 92 Letter Twenty-Five to Julie

Dear Julie, I must speak to you again about your portrait.I wasn't as excited about it as you were, on the contrary, I looked at it with a sense of being deluded by vain hopes, and with regret that it could never make up for the loss of you.Your portrait is very elegant and beautiful, and it shows your charm.It is quite like yours, and it is indeed the work of everybody, but for me to be entirely satisfied with it, I must not have seen you in person. The first thing I would accuse it of is that it is like you but not you, it has your features but is indifferent.That painter thought he had painted your eyes and face absolutely realistically, but he didn't know that he hadn't painted the charm of your eyes and face at all. Without this charm, no matter how charming your eyes and face are, That's also pointless.My Julie, the beauty of your face is in your heart, which cannot be painted.I admit that this is due to the lack of skill in the painting, but it is at least a major failure of the painter to not paint every detail vividly.For example, he draws the roots of the hair too far from the temples, so that your forehead is not well defined, and your eyes lose their charm.He overlooked that there was a little purple spot under the skin, made of two or three venules, not unlike those blue pansies we saw in Clarend Gardens the other day.In addition, the blush on your face is too close to the eyes, unlike your own face, which gradually turns pink. It seems to have been rouged, just like the rouge used by the women here.This defect is not trivial, because it makes your eyes not very gentle, and the expression is very hard.

But, please tell me, what did that painter do with those two love nests hidden at the corners of your mouth, those two love nests that I only dared to kiss with my mouth in happy days?He didn't draw the beautiful lines of the corners of the mouth well, and the charming and dignified outline of the mouth, which is the most important part. Just a little smile will change the shape of the mouth, which makes me fascinated and intoxicated , unspeakable.Yes, it is impossible to change a portrait from serious to smiling.But, that's exactly what I'm complaining about.In order to be able to draw all your demeanor, I must follow you every day and every moment, and draw all your every move, smile and frown.

The artist still has a few beautiful places that he didn't paint, that's fine, but he neglected those flaws on your face, that's not right.He didn't draw that little scar that's barely visible under your right eye at all, or the little scar on the left side of your neck.He didn't draw... Oh, my God!Is this person hard-hearted? ...he also ignored that little scar under your lip.He painted your hair and eyebrows the same color, which is not right, your eyebrows are slightly chestnut and your hair is slightly gray: Blonde hair, blue eyes, chestnut eyebrows. He made the lower part of your face a complete oval, and he didn't notice that there was a thin curved line separating the chin from the cheeks, making their outlines less regular but more graceful.These are the most obvious defects, and he has overlooked many others, so I am extremely dissatisfied with him, because I love not only your beauty, but your whole being, as you are.If you don't like what his brush adds to you, I don't like what he leaves you out.Just as I don't allow him to miss your beauty, I also don't allow him to ignore your unbeauty.

As for attire, I don't care much.In fact, I think you used to dress much more elegantly than in your portraits.Your headdress is too much, like a head full of flowers.cough!These flowers are purely redundant.Do you remember, at a ball, you dressed like a Valais girl, and your cousin said I danced too primly?At that time, you just curled your hair, coiled it on your head, and fastened it with a gold hairpin, just like a village girl in Bern.No, the golden sun is not as dazzling as you, nor as shocking as you.You can be sure that anyone who saw you that day will never forget you for the rest of their lives.This is how you should comb your hair, my Julie.Let your fair hair set off your face, not cover it with rouge, and tarnish it.I am very grateful to your cousin for taking care of you and choosing for you, but please tell her that the flowers she puts on your hair for you are not as elegant as the flowers she copied in "Adonna". Increase beauty, but cover up your beauty.

As for the upper body, it's odd that a lover can be harsher on a woman's upper body than her father.I do think you don't pay much attention to what you're wearing, though.Julie's portrait should be as simple and generous as she herself.my love!These secrets should only be known to you.You said that the painter drew everything from his imagination.I believe it, I really believe it!what!If he caught a glimpse of hidden beauty, his eyes would be fixed on it, and his hands would not move at all, and he would not be able to paint.Then why did he boldly draw out of imagination?I think it's not only impolite, it's also a lack of taste.Yes, your countenance is too dignified and pure to tolerate the slightest disturbance of your bosom.He could see that one of the face and the breast should overwhelm the other, and that only mad love could harmonize the two.When his excited hand boldly uncovered the part covered by shame, the confusion and fear in your eyes showed that you forgot to cover it, rather than wanting to expose it.

This is what I think after looking closely at your portrait.I have thought it out on the basis of these observations, and am going to embellish it according to my own ideas.I have communicated my ideas with a master painter, and judging by the revisions he has made, I hope to see a painting more like yours soon.Because I was worried about ruining the original painting, I asked him to draw another one according to the original painting, first modifying the one he had painted, and then asked him to modify the original painting after we were completely satisfied with his modification.Although I was not very good at drawing, the artist never tired of admiring my keenness of observation.He couldn't figure out how much better than he was the master who taught me to make these comments.Sometimes, he thought I was weird: he said that I was the first lover who wanted to cover up the eye-catching part, and others wanted to expose it as much as possible; when I answered him, it was for the better. Looking at you carefully, you are so deliberately dressed like this, he stared at me like a madman.what!If I could figure out a way to show your heart with your face, if I could paint your modesty as well as your grace, your portrait would touch people's hearts even more up!I bet, my Julie, that this portrait of yours will be much more agreeable with this modification.People generally only look at the appearance drawn by the artist based on imagination, while emotional viewers will guess the person in the painting based on the portrait.I don't know what kind of unknowable magic power you have, but everyone who comes into contact with you seems to feel this magic power.Just glance at the corner of your dress and be amazed at how you look in it.When people see you in this dress, they feel that the beautiful veil is covering your beauty everywhere, and your simple dress seems to indicate the endless beauty in your heart.