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A

"Lady Elizabeth Delme and Her Children" by Reynolds is a typical family group portrait in the Grand Style of English portrait

painting. Lady Delme was the wife of a member of Parliament and belonged to the privileged class of the landed nobility. Here, with

an air of apparently casual informality, she is shown on the terrace before her country-house, while behind stretch the broad acres of

her family estate.

Reynolds has taken care that the gestures, facial expressions, and poses of his subjects are appropriate to their age, character, and

social status. "The joy of a monarch," Dryden once wrote, "for the news of a victory must not be expressed like the ecstasy of a

harlequin on the receipt of a letter from his mistress." So, in this portrait, Lady Delme is dignified and gracious, secure in the

knowledge of her beauty and wealth. Her son John, aged five, as if sensing the responsibilities of manhood, gazes sternly toward the

distant horizon. Her other son, Emelias Henry, in unmasculine skirts as befits his three years, is coy and winsome. The fourth

member of the group, the unkempt Skye terrier, is the embodiment of loyal affection. Note the simplicity of the pyramidal design and

the low-keyed colour scheme. These features were for Reynolds symbols of dignity and good taste.

B

The "Mrs. Sarah Siddons" by Gainsborough has the distinction of being not only a remarkable work of art, but a unique

interpretation of a unique personality. It is not only one of the artist's finest portraits, but also one of the best of the many likenesses

of the great tragic actress, who sat to most of the celebrated masters of her day. It was painted in 1783—1785, when the queen of the

tragic drama was in her twenty-ninth year and at the zenith of her fame.

An enthusiastic admirer who saw it in the Manchester exhibition of 1857 wrote as follows: "The great tragic actress, who inter-

preted the passions with such energy and such feeling, and who felt them so strongly herself, is better portrayed in this simple half-

length in her day dress, than in allegorical portraits as the Tragic Muse or in character parts. This portrait is so original, so individu al,

as a poetic expression of character, as a deliberate selection of pose, as bold colour and free handling, that it is like the work of no

other painter.

C

"Dedham Lock and Mill" (1820)

This is a brilliant example of Constable's view painting at its complete maturity. The salient features of the landscape are treated in

sharp relief— even those not strictly necessary— yet they merge perfectly under a serene, perfect light. This painting contains, in

synthesis, all the elements of landscape which Constable loved best: the river, the boats, the soaked logs, the river vegetation, the sun

shining through the foliage of the tall trees, the scenes of rural life and, above all, Dedham Mill. The cultural origins of this work are

apparent in the traditional composition, in the use of chiaroscuro, in the way the landscape fades into the distance, after the Dutch