The article presents a literary criticism of Walter Pater's "Imaginary Portraits" which remained vibrant with a new French translation in 1930, a Castilian one in 1942 and two more Italian translations in 1944 and 1994. It focuses on 2 important aspects of his short fiction namely its contemporary reception in 1887 and his use of portraiture which hovers around the framed and the fluid. It notes how Pater asserts his mature omnipotence as a writer while crushing one young life after another.