To Thomas Woolner 7 April [1871]1
Down
April 7
My dear Mr. Woolner
I dare say you often meet and know well painters. Could you persuade some trustworthy men to observe young and inexperienced girls who serve as models, and who at first blush much, how low down the body the blush extends. Several eminent surgeons have been observing for me, and with a single exception have never seen a blush extend beneath (and rarely so far down) as the upper of the breasts.2
Moreau says a celebrated French painter once saw a new model blushing all over her body.3 So that I want much to hear what the experience is of cautious and careful English artists: I always distrust memory. Can you aid me?
The tips to the ears have become quite celebrated. One Reviewer (Nature) says they ought to be called, as I suggested in joke, Angulus Woolnerianus.4
A great German physiologist is very proud to find that he has tips well developed & I believe will send me a photograph of his ears; & if a good case, I think I would have it photographed on wood engraved for new Edit.5 Making of course no change in my text.
Yours very sincerely, | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Lavater, Gaspard. 1820. L’art de connaître les hommes par la physionomie. New edition by M. Moreau de la Sarthe. 10 vols. Paris: Depélafol.
LL: The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. Edited by Francis Darwin. 3 vols. London: John Murray. 1887–8.
Pye-Smith, Philip Henry. 1871. Review of Descent of man, by Charles Darwin. Nature, 6 April 1871, pp. 442–4, 13 April 1871, pp. 463–5.
Woolner, Amy. 1917. Thomas Woolner, R.A., sculptor and poet: his life in letters. London: Chapman and Hall.
Summary
Asks TW to persuade painters to observe how far down body blush extends on models.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7665
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Woolner
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 148: 381, Woolner 1917, p. 288
- Physical description
- C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7665,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7665.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19