painter of the faces and designer of the attitudes, which
are in such perfect harmony with the subordinate elements about them as
to be completed only when the alliance is made. Without this alliance,
this harmony of parts, half the significance of many of Reynolds's
pictures is obscured. When we have noted this the result is at least
instructive, if not convincing, that one mind designed, if one hand did
not invariably execute, the whole of any important portrait by our
subject.

Our own belief is, that whenever the landscapes or other accessories of
his productions are essential to the idea expressed by the work as a
whole, then undoubtedly Reynolds wrought these minor parts almost
wholly, if not entirely, with his own brushes.

Few, if any, of Reynolds's family groups equals in beauty, variety, and
spirit, the famous _Cornelia and her Children_, or rather _Lady Cockburn
and her three Infants_,--a work so charming, that we can well conceive
the feelings of the Royal Academicians of 1774, that long-past time,
when it was brought to be hung in the Exhibition, and received with
clapping of hands, as men applaud a successful musical performance, or
the fine reading of a poem. Every Royal Academician then present--the
scene must have been a very curious one--stepped forward, and in this
manner saluted the work of the President; they did so, not because it
was his, but on account of its charming qualities. Conceive the
painters, each in his swallow-tailed coat, his ruffles and broad cuffs,
his knee-breeches, buckles, long waistcoat, and the rest of his garments
of those days, thus uniting in one acclaim. The reader may judge whether
or not such applause was deserved by the picture, which tells its own
story. The parrot in the background was occasionally used by Reynolds;
see the portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Derby, and the engraving from
it by W. Dickinson.[29] It has been said that the only example of
Reynolds's practice in signing pictures on the border of the robes of
his sitters appears in _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_; nevertheless,
this picture of _Cornelia_ shows at least one exception to that asserted
rule. The border of Lady Cockburn's dress in the original is inscribed
in a similar manner thus:--"1775, Reynolds _pinxit_." The picture was
begun in 1773, and is now in the possession of Sir James Hamilton, of
Portman Square, who married the daughter of General Sir James Cockburn,
one of the boys in the pict