The picture is a charming example of the skill of the artist, both in expressing lightness and grace in attitude, and also in power of grouping and composition. The children are moving with the utmost daintiness and freedom, and are all of them admirably well drawn.
The tall figure is, if anything, a little too tall, but adds dignity to the group, while the artless expression on the faces of the girls is beyond praise. There is a peculiar sweetness and happiness in the faces of all the little ones, and they are evidently in full enjoyment of health and spirits, and have no feeling of formal grouping or stilted posing about them.
GEORGE GRANVILLE, SECOND MARQUESS OF STAFFORD
AND FIRST DUKE OF SUTHERLAND.
The colour scheme is delightful. The white dress of the tall sister and of the boy, with the same hue in the columns, is charmingly contrasted with the green, plum colour and red of the other dresses, and with the increase of colour that the scarves of brown and purple give. All is harmony and grace without artifice, and the technique of the picture is of the very simplest order.
As an example of dignity and restraint, the Portrait of George Granville will be appreciated. He was the eldest son of the same Earl Gower who afterwards in his turn became second Marquess of Stafford and then first Duke of Sutherland. He was, of course, the brother of the tall girl with the tambourine in the last picture.
By his marriage with the lady who was Countess of Sutherland in her own right, he became a person of vast importance and the owner of enormous estates, which he managed admirably and laid the foundation for the position now occupied by his successors.
He stands quietly before the spectator, dressed in a yellow silk jacket with deep lace collar and cuffs, has a red robe thrown over his shoulders, and bears in his hand his gray hat with black feathers.
It is well to mark the extreme care with which the hand of the young aristocrat is painted, and how expressive it is—perhaps as much as the serious and somewhat haughty face—of the position and influence of the lad.