This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIX. PORTRAITURE--GEOUPS--PROPORTION. The composition of a poitrait group depends very much upon the character of its constituents. Two or three children, if they are not excessively stupid samples, are very easy to group together, and, -when -well done, make the most agreeable and natural pictures; while two adults, especially of the male kind, although easier to photograph, seldom make an effective composition. The great art in the composition of a group is in so arranging -the figures that they shall have some relation to each other, as well as the ordinary elements of pictorial construction. There should be some bond of union between those who compose the group; some incident should be represented in which they are mutually interested; or something must be imagined out of the picture to attract the attention of both if only two are represented, or of many of them if there is a number. The figures should be massed together, and not scattered over the space so as to make it necessary to examine each portrait in detail, until it has been seen, and the effect agreeably felt, as a whole. Nothing has a more disagreeable effect than two figures in one picture which may be cut in two without much injury to either half--two figures, like Enid and Geraint in the wild land-- "Apart by all the chamber's width, and mute As creatures voiceless, through the fault of birth. Or two wild men supporters of a shield, Painted, who stare at open space, nor glance The one at other, parted by the shield." It is not necessary, in representing two persons in conversation, that they should be looking at each other; the effect of listeningcan be rendered without putting them to that trying ordeal. It constantly happens that in conversations even on the...