Raja
Jivan Ram, an excellent portrait painter, and a very honest and
agreeable person, was lately employed to take the Emperor's portrait.
After the first few sittings, the portrait was taken into the
seraglio to the ladies. The next time he came, the Emperor requested
him to remove the great _blotch from under the nose_. 'May it please
your majesty, it is impossible to draw any person without _a shadow_;
and I hope many millions will long continue to repose under that of
your majesty.' 'True, Raja,' said his majesty, 'men must have
shadows; but there is surely no necessity for placing them
immediately under their noses. The ladies will not allow mine to be
put there; they say it looks as if I had been taking snuff all my
life, and it certainly has a most filthy appearance; besides, it is
all awry, as I told you when you began upon it.' The Raja was obliged
to remove from under the imperial, and certainly very noble, nose,
the shadow which he had thought worth all the rest of the picture.
Queen Elizabeth is said, by an edict, to have commanded all artists
who should paint her likeness, 'to place her in a garden with a full
light upon her, and the painter to put _any shadow_ in her face at
his peril'.
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