Here are Henry and Williams James at Lamb House in September, 1900.

I like how the younger brother seems to fit himself into the embrace of the older brother, his head tilted affectionately and obliquely toward his sibling, submitting to William's brotherly gesture and mimicking his right-foot-forward stance while remaining at the same time supremely in possession of himself, closed, inscrutable despite the apparent directness of his gaze. The older brother's pose seems more natural, more candid and open.

I imagine them standing awkwardly while the photographer pauses to take the picture, and at the last moment William reaches out his arm to draw Henry in. Henry surrenders, inclining his head toward William in acknowledgement of the gesture. But he doesn't reciprocate in kind.

Is there an element of Jamesian renunciation in the refusal? Or is it simply fear -- fear of a directness in human relations that, for his all greatness, he rarely approached even in his art?