Moore, George (George Augustus), 1852-1933 / 2008-11-03 00:00:00

But she could only sit
to him for an hour or two before she went to Mr. Lawrence, and
Rodney said that she would be doing him an extraordinary favour if
she would get up some hours earlier and sit to him from eight till
ten. It was amusing to do the bust, but the bust was only a
pretext. What he wanted her to do was to sit for the nude, and he
could not help trying to persuade her, though he did not believe
for a moment that he would succeed. He took her to the museum and
he showed her the nude, and told her how great ladies sat for
painters in the old times. He prepared the way very carefully, and
when the bust was finished he told her suddenly that he must go to
a country where he could get models. He could see she was
disappointed at losing him, and he asked her if she would sit.
"You don't want a nude model for Our Blessed Lady. Do you?"
There was a look, half of hesitation, half of pleasure, and he
knew that she would sit to him, and he guessed she would have sat
to him long ago if he had asked her. No doubt his long delay in
asking her to sit had made her fear he did not think her figure a
good one. He had never had such a model before, not in France or
in Italy, and had done the best piece of work he had ever done in
his life. Harding had seen it, and had said that it was the best
piece that he had done. Harding had said that he would buy it from
him if he got rid of the conventional head, and when Harding had
left him he had lain awake all night thinking how he should model
Lucy's head, and he was up and ready for her at eight, and had
done the best head he had ever done in his life.
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