Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

to the Professor of Colorossi, and he gave him a
month's sitting in the portrait class. The portrait
class had not got a cours libre and one had to have
criticisms from the professor. This amused me as I
had not been taught in an art class for years. I
started a small head which went very well. On
Friday the Professor arrived. I have forgotten his
name3 but he is a well known exhibitor at the Spring
Salon. He was a sweet little man with a grey beard;
he stared at me a good deal and gave me a very good
and true criticism. I took his advice and it turned
into, I think,, one of my best portraits. It was
bought in 1926 at my Exhibition in London by Mr.
Edward Marsh and is now in his collection.
I had met at the Sitwells* house in London, a most
charming South American. He had a large flat in
Paris and one day came to Montparnasse, where he
found me. He had with him Christopher Wood,
who was staying in his flat. He was a very promising
young painter and had been originally discovered
by Alphonse Kahn. I found him a most charming
young man. He had a studio near the Boulevard
St. Germain. I dined with him and we danced at
the Cafe de Versailles. He knew many people whom
I had known in London and we had a very enter-
taining evening. He had models in his studio and
asked me if I knew of any good ones. I recom-
mended Rupert Doone and brought him with me.
We all had lunch at the studio and afterwards drew.
I am afraid we were very cruel as we wanted a kneel-
ing position from the back and Kit tied the unfor-
model to the gallery of the studio with a