Most women are not as young as they are painted.

The epigram hinges on the double sense of “painted”: literally depicted in a portrait and cosmetically “painted” with makeup. Beerbohm suggests that representations of women—whether on canvas or in public presentation—tend to skew younger than the truth, not as an accusation of individual deceit but as a comment on cultural incentives to idealize youth. The line’s bite comes from its calm, almost statistical phrasing (“Most women”), which mimics a sober generalization while delivering a social jab. More broadly, it critiques how artifice and social expectation can overwrite reality, especially around age and desirability.