Theos-Talk Archives (September 2006 Message tt00401)

Portraits of the Masters:
"Class B" works of art??? "They look like spooks"??

Jake writes about the Schmiechen portraits of the Masters Morya and 
Koot Hoomi as follows:

"Quite frankly I'm a little embarassed by those portaits of the 
adepts, they're definitely 'class B' works of art, and I'm a little 
amazed they were regarded highly (except for the spirit behind 
them.) They look like spooks. M may have 'helped out' Schemlein(?) 
the artist, but I doubt art was his forte, which was more likely 
sword-play."

Now I invite interested readers to compare and contrast what Jake 
wrote above with what Colonel Henry S. Olcott wrote about the 
portraits.

It should be remembered as one reads Olcott's words that Colonel 
Olcott testified that he actually met the two Adepts in their 
physical bodies.

Writing about "the paintings by Schmiechen, of the magnificent 
portraits in oils of the ... [Master Morya] and another Master [Koot 
Hoomi]", Colonel Olcott observed:

"...the likenesses are so perfect and so striking as to seem endowed 
with life.... They are an inspiration rather than an illustration of 
thought-transference...." Old Diary Leaves, Volume 1, p. 372.

And turning to Old Diary Leaves, Volume 3, pp. 163-164, Colonel 
Olcott wrote again about Schmiechen's portraits of the Masters:

"....[The portrait of Master Morya is] as pefect a portrait of my 
Guru as he [Schmiechen] could have painted from life.... In the 
picture he has got all - the face, complexion, size, shape and 
expression of eyes....This is also true of the companion portrait 
which Schmiechen painted of our other chief Guru [Koot Hoomi]...."

Of course, one should keep in mind that SOME photographs of these 
portraits may not due justice to the original paintings (or to the 
copies of the paintings also made by Schmiechen).

Again for comparison and contrast, I provide a webpage titled 
"4 Paintings by Herman Schmiechen".

See:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/schiemiechenportraits.htm

On this web page one will find (side by side) reproductions of the 
Masters' two portraits as well as reproductions of 2 portraits of 
H.P. Blavatsky also painted by Schmiechen.

I think that most readers will be able to recognize that the woman 
in the two portraits is in fact H.P. Blavatsky (as seen from various 
photographs of her).

Does this observation concerning H.P.B.'s portraits tell us anything 
about the Masters' portraits and their likenesses to the physical 
men known by their initiatory names Morya and Koot Hoomi??

Daniel
http://hpb.cc