The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact.
Source: Table Talk, in Correspondence and Table-Talk, vol. 2 (ed. by Frederic Wordsworth Haydon, 1876).
-- Benjamin Haydon, (Jan 26 1786-1846), US painter, writer; A painter in the Grand Manner expounded by Reynolds, Haydon was also a popular teacher, writer, and lecturer.