"Not at all: the result of the struggle is the same thing--
picture or no picture--logically."

Will could not resist this imperturbable temper, and the cloud
in his face broke into sunshiny laughter.

"Come now, my friend--you will help?" said Naumann, in a hopeful tone.

"No; nonsense, Naumann! English ladies are not at everybody's service
as models. And you want to express too much with your painting.
You would only have made a better or worse portrait with a background
which every connoisseur would give a different reason for or against.
And what is a portrait of a woman? Your painting and Plastik are
poor stuff after all. They perturb and dull conceptions instead
of raising them. Language is a finer medium."

"Yes, for those who can't paint," said Naumann. "There you have
perfect right. I did not recommend you to paint, my friend."

The amiable artist carried his sting, but Ladislaw did not choose
to appear stung. He went on as if he had not heard.

"Language gives a fuller image, which is all the better for beings vague.
After all, the true seeing is within; and painting stares at you
with an insistent imperfection. I feel that especially about
representations of women. As if a woman were a mere colored superficies!
You must wait for movement and tone. There is a difference in their
very breathing: they change from moment to moment.--This woman whom
you have just seen, for example: how would you paint her voice,