I began painting my Rosenberg conversion (see Post 134) with one eye on the
Pendraken painting competition. Yes, February brought with it the annual uncertainty
of whether I should or shouldn’t enter this or that in this year’s competition.
The Rosenberg conversion appeared to paint up quite acceptably, and the map idea
seemed to make sense. To enter him in a painting competition, though, I thought
would need a little more cleaning up of the sculpting. I would have to take the scalpel
to his collar and sort out what would otherwise be acceptable on the tabletop but not
really good enough for the close-scrutiny of the camera lens, so important in
Painting Rosenberg
producing a painting competition contender. I was conscious that if I messed up with
the blade it would put poor Rosenberg out of the running.
I was quite pleased at how my sculpted coat tails had turned out. Examining Johann
Krafft’s painting, however, appeared to reveal that I had got the cuff slits the wrong
way round. One of Archduke Charles’ cuffs (above, far left) seemed to open out to the
hand rather than back to the arm. However, the style was not repeated in Krafft’s other
portrait of Charles at Essling (above, right). Rosenberg’s one visible cuff (above) didn’t
display any slit. Both his cuff and saddle cloth had a single wide gold band.
POST 139
139
