Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
Reynolds believed in the what was called the "Grand Manner". The two years involved in completing the portrait would have aged the children. "But Reynolds worked from abstract principles of design rather than observation of nature," the National Gallery of Art writes, "One of his conceptions for Grand Manner likenesses was: Each person should have the expression which men of his rank generally exhibit. Reynolds therefore suppressed psychological individuality to gain a grandeur appropriate for these aristocrats."