title: Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections
author:  Sona Johnston 
description: <div><b>Sona Johnston</b> is Curator of Painting and Sculpture Before 1900 at The Baltimore Museum of Art. She has organized exhibitions on the art of Antoine-Louis Barye, Honor&eacute; Daumier, Winslow Homer, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and others. Her writings include numerous exhibition and collection catalogues. At present she is preparing a catalogue raisonn&eacute; of the work of the American Impressionist Theodore Robinson.<br><br><b>John House</b> is Professor of the History of Art and Deputy Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. An expert on nineteenth-century French art, he has written requisite monographs on Monet and Renoir and has made major contributions to many notable books on Impressionist art.<br><br><b>Susan Bollendorf</b> is Research Assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture Before 1900 at The Baltimore Museum of Art.<br></div>
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  # The Great Portrait Mystery and other stories
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### R Austin Freeman
  
  
  This page formatted 2005 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  THE GREAT PORTRAIT MYSTERY
  
  
    
  PART I
  
  
    
  PART II
  
  
    
  PART III
  
  
    
  PART IV
  
  
  POWDER BLUE AND HAWTHORN
  
  
    
  PART I
  
  
    
  PART II
  
  
    
  PART III
  
  
    
  PART IV
  
  
  THE ATTORNEY'S CONSCIENCE
  
  
  THE LUCK OF BARNABAS MUDGE
  
  
  * * *
  
  ## THE GREAT PORTRAIT MYSTERY
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### PART I
  
  
  
  
  
    
  As a collection of human oddments, the National Gallery on copying
  
  
  day surpasses even the Reading Room of the British Museum, and almost
  
  
  equals the House of Commons. The spectacle that it afforded was a
  
  
  source of perennial interest to Mr. Joseph Fittleworth, as were also
  
  
  the productions of the professional copyists, humorously described in
  
  
  official parlance as students. For Joseph Fittleworth was himself a
  
  
  painter, with a leaning to the methods of the past rather than to those
  
  
  of the future, a circumst