catch a likeness

“It was very difficult for me,” Catherine answered, “just as it is for you. The human form in all its complexity is not the easiest thing to re-create. It is hard to catch a likeness of a person unless the artist knows the person very well. That’s why, once you find someone whose likeness you’ve mastered, it’s hard to let them go.”

To catch a likeness is, however remotely, to possess, and what has been possessed may be retained through the strange mnemonic chemistry of metaphor.

We expect to catch a likeness of our hairy visitor, even if the trap fails to work, and hold him a prisoner.

He could catch a likeness in a moment.

It isn't everybody who can catch a likeness.