Sir Joshua Reynolds R.A.

(1723-1792)

by

Gilbert Stuart

Sir Joshua Reynolds' reputation today rests principally on his portraits, his theoretical writings on art and his role as President of the Royal Academy. Yet in his own day Reynolds' subject pictures were among the most widely discussed British paintings of the century.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was born in the village of Plympton, near Plymouth, UK, on 16^th July 1723, the sixth son of a cleric who was headmaster at Plympton Grammar School, (shown left), where Reynolds was later educated. He was probably named after his uncle, though his father maintained that it would be an advantage in later life to have an uncommon Christian name.

Intended by his parents for the medical profession, he showed an over-riding proclivity for art, his first drawing being of the colonnade of the grammar school.  In 1740 he went to London to pursue his art studies, becoming a pupil of Hudson, a leading portraitist.  He studied with Hudson until 1743 when his father could no longer afford even the reduced fees charged by Hudson and returned home.  Reynolds set up as a portrait painter at what was then known as Plymouth Dock and became quite popular locally.  However, his popularity waned and he returned to London "to study great pictures and perfect himself in his art".  

In 1746 Reynolds's father died and the painter set up home for himself and two sisters in Plymouth Dock and then came into contact with the leading painter William Gandy, whose father had studied under Vandyke and whose genius was only spoiled by his lack of perseverance. Gandy taught Reynolds to paint with richness and texture "as if the colours had been composed of cream cheese"

In 1749 he sailed to Italy to study the Italian Masters. He stayed principally in Rome, but also visited Florence, Bologna and Venice before returning to London in 1753. The visit was crucial to his development; throughout his life he recalled the Sistine Chapel decorations, the sculptors of antiquity, the Bolognese seventeenth-century classicists and the Venetian sixteenth-century painters. However, he caught a cold whilst studying at the Vatican which left him deaf and obliged him to use an ear-trumpet to listen to conversation.  His ear-trumpet was used with discretion and would always be lowered when uncharitable or ignorant conversation was taking place.

On his return from Italy he became increasingly successful in London, and his friendships with Garrick, Burke and Goldsmith were both warm and shrewd.  With his close friend Dr. Johnson he founded the Literary Club as a home for some of the greatest literary men of the day.  In 1768, when the Royal Academy was founded, he was unanimously elected its first president where, between 1769 and 1790, he exhibited 244 pictures (of which only 32 were not portraits). He was knighted in 1769.

His fifteen Discourses, delivered to the Academy students, remain an eloquent and nimble advocacy of that 'general and intellectual beauty' which constituted the classical ideal. Reynolds's practice could differ agreeably from his preaching; visits to Paris in 1768 (9 September-23 October) and 1771 (13 August-6 September), the Netherlands in 1781 (24July-14 September) and Brussels in 1785 (August and September) modified his ideas, and he often took from his contemporaries.

In 1784 Reynolds succeeded Alan Ramsay as Principal Painter to King George III, but his Royal portraits were not a success. In the same year he exhibited probably his greatest portrait, that of the English actress Sarah Siddons as The Tragic Muse (right). 

He spent his later years living in Leicester Square, London, where there is a small commemorative bust (left) near one of the entrance gates.

Reynolds is credited with more than 2000 portraits. Stylistically, Michelangelo and the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens influenced him.  Calm dignity, classical allusions, rich colour, and realistic portrayal of character distinguished Reynolds’s portraits.  However, Reynolds was held by the Pre-Raphaelites to epitomise all that was bad about the Royal Academy, and they called him 'Sir Sloshua Reynolds' because they felt that all good old Academicians covered their work with a thick coating of brown varnish to hide mistakes and give a general warm glow to their paintings.

Reynolds's painting technique was often experimental and, due to his use of bitumen (asphalt), and experimental pigments some of his colours faded prematurely and many of his pictures have not lasted well.

He ceased to paint, because of failing eyesight, in the summer of 1789 and he died, blind and deaf, in London on 23 February 1792. He was buried with great pomp in St. Paul's Cathedral and his gravestone may be seen set in the floor (right), close to the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren

Reynolds employed a number of pupil-assistants (such as Marchi from 1752, Northecote 1771-6 and Doughty 1775-8) and the frequent discrepancy between the heads and draperies of his portraits suggests a busy studio practice.

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