activity, as in the Bacchus and
Ariadne and how subdued is that blue! but even in such pictures there
are the intermediate grays, both warm and cold, that the transition from
warm to cold be not too sudden. We cannot say that Sir Joshua Reynolds
did not introduce these qualifying grays, because the browns have so
evidently become more intense, that they may have changed them to their
own hue.

There are some pictures here which have either lost their glaze by
cleaning, or never had it, and these have a freshness, and touch too,
which others want; such is the case with "Lady Cockburn and her Three
Sons"--a very fine picture, beautifully coloured, and well grouped, very
like nature, and certainly in a manner of Vandyck. We remember, too, his
"Kitty Fisher," and regret the practice which, with the view of giving
tone, often took away real colour, and a great deal of the delicacy of
nature. The very natural portrait of "Madame Schindelin," quite in
another manner from any usual with Sir Joshua, shows that he was less
indebted to his after theory of colouring than people in general have
imagined. The most forcible picture among them is the "Ugolino." It is
well known that the head of Ugolino was a study, and not designed for
Ugolino, but that the story was adopted to suit it; yet it has been
thought to want the dignity of that character. Ugolino had been a man in
power; there is not much mark in the picture of his nobility. It has
been said, too, that the addition of his sons is no improvement in the
picture. We think otherwise: they are well grouped; by their various
attitudes they give the greater desperate fixedness to Ugolino, and they
do tell the story well, and are good in themselves. The power of the
picture is very great, and it is not overpowered by glazing. On the
whole, we think it his most vigorous work, and one upon which his fame
as a painter may fairly rest. We have a word to say with respect to Sir
Joshua's pictures of children. That he fully admired Correggio, we
cannot doubt--his children have all human sweetness, tenderness, and
affection; but it was the archness of children that mostly delighted our
painter--their play, their frolic, their fun. In this, though in the
main successful, he was apt to border upon the caricature; we often
observe a cat-like expression. "The Strawberry Girl" has perhaps the
most intense, and at the same time human look. It is deeply sentient or
deeply feeling. The "Cardinal Be