Joshua Reynolds

Lore & Background

Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, the third son of the Reverend Samuel Reynolds. His sister Mary Palmer provided £60 for his pupillage to Thomas Hudson in 1740. After leaving Hudson in 1743, he worked in Plymouth Dock before returning to London. In 1749, he met Commodore Augustus Keppel and joined HMS Centurion on a voyage to the Mediterranean, visiting Lisbon, Cádiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Italy, spending two years in Rome studying the Old Masters and acquiring a taste for the 'Grand Style.' While in Rome he suffered a severe cold that left him partially deaf, leading him to carry a small ear trumpet. He returned to England in October 1752, established himself in London the following year, and remained there for the rest of his life.

Reynolds had a famously prolific studio that produced over 2,000 paintings. He received five or six sitters a day during the late 1750s. By 1761, he could command 80 guineas for a full-length portrait; in 1764, he was paid 100 guineas for a portrait of Lord Burghersh. His sitters' clothing was usually painted by pupils, studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or drapery painter Peter Toms. Reynolds often adapted poses from earlier artists, a practice mocked by Nathaniel Hone in a painting called The Conjuror. He also painted landscapes, including a view from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, around 1780. He was recognised for portraits of children, such as his 1788 work Age of Innocence.

Reynolds was gregarious and keenly intellectual, with friends including Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, and artist Angelica Kauffman. He was a member of The Club. Johnson said in 1778: 'Reynolds is too much under [Charles James] Fox and Burke at present. He is under the Fox star.'

Reader's Guide

Sir Joshua Reynolds is significant as the leading portrait artist of the 18th century and a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. His promotion of the 'Grand Style'—idealising the imperfect—shaped British portraiture. His studio produced over 2,000 paintings, with works such as Portrait of Omai, described by Simon Schama as 'one of the greatest things British art has ever produced,' and The Marlborough Family, considered by Ellis Waterhouse as 'the most monumental achievement of British portraiture.' Thomas Lawrence rated Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse as 'indisputably the finest female portrait in the world.' The price paid for Portrait of Omai in 2023 was £50 million, far more than ever paid for an 18th-century picture. Jonathan Jones says 'that puts Reynolds in the superstar category, way beyond his contemporaries, and competing with the likes of Damien Hirst and Lucian Freud.' Reynolds is described as 'the portraitist of the Enlightenment, a daring artist who captured a daring age.' His legacy endures through his influence on British art and the record prices his works command.

Did You Know?

• Reynolds was partially deaf after a severe cold in Rome and carried a small ear trumpet.
• His sister Mary Palmer provided £60 for his pupillage to Thomas Hudson in 1740.
• The price paid for Portrait of Omai in 2023 was £50 million, far more than ever paid for an 18th-century picture.
• Reynolds' annotated copy of Jonathan Richardson's An Essay on the Theory of Painting was lost for nearly two hundred years before appearing in a Cambridge bookshop.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Sir Joshua Reynolds, RA, FRS, FRSA (July 16 1723 – February 23 1792) was an English artist, a founder member of the Literary Club, and the first President of the Royal Academy." — Joshua Reynolds "Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing can come of nothing." — Joshua Reynolds "Discourse no. 2, delivered on December 11, 1769; vol. 1, p. 28." — Joshua Reynolds "You must have no dependence on your own genius.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency." — Joshua Reynolds