SURPRISINGLY little is known for certain about the working procedures of even the best-documented painters of the eighteenth century. That SirJoshua Reynolds's procedure involved – at least occasionally – the making of preliminary oil sketches is attested by the existence of a small group of authentic examples of which the Marlborough family group (Fig. 1) in the Tate Gallery is perhaps the best known. Two questions immediately arise. First, what rôle did such sketches play in Reynolds's practice? (Did he paint them for himself, as part of the process of composition, or for his assistants to work from, or to show the customer?) And secondly, how many genuine sketches can be identified today?

IN 1856, the year after he married Effie Gray, his ambition heightened by financial need, John Everett Millais sent five paintings to the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy. Four of them, The blind girl, Autumn leaves, Portrait of a gentle- man and L'enfant du rigiment, picture children in various situations of comfort or distress. The fifth, Peace concluded,1856, represents two children as part of a domestic scene. Not yet a father, Millais was preparing for the rôle.