I must, however, admit that to a certain extent the artist was right in his complaints.

I had been present several times at the sittings, and noticed that all who had posed for the artist behaved rather unnaturally.

Sincere and naive, conscious of the importance of their position, convinced that the features of their faces perpetuated upon the canvas would go down to posterity, they exaggerated somewhat the qualities which are so characteristic of their high and responsible office in our prison.

A certain bombast of pose, an exaggerated expression of stern authority, an obvious consciousness of their own importance, and a noticeable contempt for those on whom their eyes were directed--all this disfigured their kind and affable faces.
But I cannot understand what horrible features the artist found where there should have been a smile.

I was even indignant at the superficial attitude with which an artist, who considered himself talented and sensible, passed the people without noticing that a divine spark was glimmering in each one of them.