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Sir Joshua Reynolds

Self-portrait
Birth name Joshua Reynolds
Born 16 July 1723(1723-07-16)
Died 23 February 1792 (aged 68)
Nationality English

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was the most important and influential of 18th century English painters, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. A Self-portrait is a representation of an artist drawn painted photographed or sculpted by the artist Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Year 1723 ( MDCCXXIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1792 ( MDCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This article refers to an art institution in London For other meanings of Royal Academy see Royal Academy (disambiguation. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce ( RSA) is a British multi-disciplinary institution based in London. Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Year 1723 ( MDCCXXIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1792 ( MDCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e A portrait is a painting, photograph, Sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person in which the face and its expression is predominant He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. This article refers to an art institution in London For other meanings of Royal Academy see Royal Academy (disambiguation. George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769. George III (George William Frederick 4 June 1738 George III's long reign was marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdom much of the rest of Europe and places

Contents

Biography

Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723. Plympton, or Plympton Maurice or Plympton St Maurice or Plympton Erle, in south-western Devon, England is an ancient Stannary Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Year 1723 ( MDCCXXIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a As one of eleven children, and the son of the village school-master, his formal education was restricted to that provided by his father. Reynolds exhibited a natural curiosity and, as a boy, came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life.

Showing an early interest in Art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable portrait painter Thomas Hudson, with whom he remained until 1743. Thomas Hudson can refer to Thomas Hudson (actor (b 1986 British actor Thomas Hudson (painter (1701–1779 English portrait painter From 1749 to 1752, he spent over two years in Italy, where he studied the Old Masters and acquired a taste for the "Grand Style". Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Unfortunately, whilst in Rome, Reynolds suffered a severe cold which left him partially deaf and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 A hearing aid is an electroacoustic body-worn apparatus which typically fits in or behind the wearer's Ear, and is designed to amplify and modulate sounds From 1753 until the end of his life he lived in London, his talents gaining recognition soon after his arrival in France. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Reynolds worked long hours in his studio, rarely taking a Holiday. He was both gregarious and keenly intellectual, with a great number of friends from London's intelligentsia, numbered amongst whom were Dr Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Giuseppe Baretti, Henry Thrale, David Garrick and fellow artist Angelica Kauffmann. Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1730 or 1728 &ndash 4 April 1774 was an Anglo-Irish writer poet and Physician known for his Novel The Vicar Edmund Burke ( 12 January, 1729 9 July, 1797) was an Irish statesman author orator Political theorist, and Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti ( April 24, 1719 - May 5, 1789) was an Italian literary critic born at Turin. Henry Thrale (1724/1730?&ndash 4 April, 1781) was an 18th century English Member of Parliament (MP and a close friend of Samuel Johnson David Garrick (born 19 February 1717 in Hereford &ndash 20 January 1779) was an English Actor, Playwright, Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffmann ( October 30, 1741 &ndash November 5, 1807) was a Swiss-Austrian painter. Because of his popularity as a portrait painter, Reynolds enjoyed constant interaction with the wealthy and famous men and women of the day, and it was he who first brought together the famous figures of "The" Club.

With his rival Thomas Gainsborough, Reynolds was the dominant English portraitist of 'the Age of Johnson'. Thomas Gainsborough (christened 14 May 1727 &ndash died 2 August 1788 was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain. It is said that in his long life he painted as many as three thousand portraits. In 1789 he lost the sight of his left eye, which finally forced him into retirement and, on 23 February 1792, he died in his house in Leicester Fields, London. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1792 ( MDCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year For the British guitarist see Lester Square. Leicester Square (ˈlɛstɚ is a Pedestrianised square in the West End He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's Cathedral, is the Anglican Cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London.

Status and reputation

Professionally, Reynolds' career never peaked. He was one of the earliest members of the Royal Society of Arts and,, with Gainsborough established the Royal Academy of Arts as a spin-off organisation. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce ( RSA) is a British multi-disciplinary institution based in London. This article refers to an art institution in London For other meanings of Royal Academy see Royal Academy (disambiguation. In 1768 he was made the RA's first President, a position he held until his death. As a lecturer, Reynolds' Discourses on Art (delivered between 1769 and 1790) are remembered for their sensitivity and perception. In one of these lectures he was of the opinion that "invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory. "

Reynolds and the Royal Academy have historically received a mixed reception. Critics include many of the Pre-Raphaelites, and William Blake, the latter having published his vitriolic Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses in 1808. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters Poets, and critics founded in 1848 by William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827 was an English poet, painter, and Printmaker. To the contrary, both J. M. W. Turner and James Northcote were fervent acolytes: Turner requested he be laid to rest at Reynolds' side, and Northcote (who lived for four years as Reynolds' pupil) wrote to his family "I know him thoroughly, and all his faults, I am sure, and yet almost worship him. Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 &ndash 19 December 1851 was an English Romantic landscape painter, Watercolourist and James Northcote RA ( October 22, 1746 - July 13, 1831) was an English painter. " The word worship is second cast; originally Northcote had written adore.

Character sketch

In appearance Reynolds was not at all striking. Slight of frame, he was just about 5'6" with dark brown curls, a florid complexion and features which James Boswell thought were "rather too largely and strongly limned. James Boswell 9th Laird of Auchinleck ( October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer diarist and Author born in Edinburgh " He had a broad face, a cleft chin, and the bridge of his nose was slightly dented; his skin was scarred by smallpox, and his upper lip disfigured as a result of falling from a horse as a young man. Nonetheless he was not considered ugly, and Edmond Malone asserted that "his appearance at first sight impressed the spectator with the idea of a well-born and well-bred English gentleman. Edmond Malone ( October 4, 1741 - April 25, 1812) was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of "

Renown for his placidity, Reynolds often claimed that he "hated nobody". Never quite losing his Devonshire accent, he was not only an amiable and original conversationalist but a friendly and generous host, so that Fanny Burney recorded in her diary that he had "a suavity of disposition that set everybody at their ease in his society", and William Makepeace Thackeray believed "of all the polite men of that age, Joshua Reynolds was the finest gentleman. For playwright Frances Burney (1776–1828 niece of novelist Fanny Burney Madame d'Arblay 1752-1840 see Frances Burney (1776–1828 Frances Burney William Makepeace Thackeray (ˈθækərɪ 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863 was an English Novelist of the 19th century " Dr. Johnson commented on the inoffensiveness of his nature; Edmund Burke noted his "strong turn for humor". Edmund Burke ( 12 January, 1729 9 July, 1797) was an Irish statesman author orator Political theorist, and Thomas Bernard, who later became Bishop of Killaloe, wrote in his verses on Reynolds:


"Dear knight of Plympton, teach me how
To suffer, with unruffled brow
And smile serene, like thine,
The jest uncouth or truth severe;
To such I'll turn my deafest ear
And calmly drink my wine. This is a list of the Church of Ireland bishops of Killaloe, Ireland


Thou say'st not only skill is gained
But genius too may be attained
By studious imitation;
Thy temper mild, thy genius fine
I'll copy till I make them mine
By constant application. "

Admittedly, some did construe Reynolds' equable calm as cool and unfeeling. Hester Lynch Piozzi's pen-portrait reads:


"Of Reynolds what good shall be said?- or what harm?
His temper too frigid; his pencil too warm;
A rage for sublimity ill understood,
To seek still for the great, by forsaking the good. Hester Lynch Thrale (born Hester Lynch Salusbury and after her second marriage Hester Lynch Piozzi) ( 16 January 1741[NS] 2 May . . "

It is to this luke-warm temperament that Frederick W. Hilles, Bodman Professor of English Literature at Yale attributes the fact Reynolds never married. In the editorial notes of his compendium Portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hilles theorizes that "as a corollary one might say that he [Reynolds] was somewhat lacking in a capacity for love", and cites Boswell's notary papers: "He said the reason he would never marry was that every woman whom he liked had grown indifferent to him, and he had been glad he did not marry her. " Reynolds' own sister, Frances, who lived with him as housekeeper, took her own negative opinion further still, thinking him "a gloomy tyrant". Strangely, it was this very presence of family that compensated Reynolds for the absence of a wife; He wrote on one occasion to his friend Bennet Langton, that both his sister and niece were away from home "so that I am quite a bachelor. Bennet Langton was an English writer and a founding member of the Literary Club. " Biographer Ian McIntyre discusses the possibility of Reynolds having enjoyed sexual rendezvous with certain clients, such as Nelly O'Brien (or "My Lady O'Brien", as he playfully dubbed her) and Kitty Fisher, who visited his house for more sittings than were strictly necessary. Catherine Maria "Kitty" Fisher (died 1767 was one of the most famous English Courtesans of her day Claims to this end are, however, purely speculative.

"Robert Clive and his family with an Indian maid", painted 1765.
"Robert Clive and his family with an Indian maid", painted 1765. Clive of India redirects here For the film see Clive of India (film.
Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, The Archers, 1769. In September 2005, the Tate Gallery acquired the painting for over UK£2.5 million (US$4.4 million).
Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, The Archers, 1769. Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney The Archers is an oil-on-canvas painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds undertaken between 1769 and 1770 In September 2005, the Tate Gallery acquired the painting for over UK£2. Tate is the United Kingdom 's national museum of British and Modern Art and is a network of four art galleries in England: Tate Britain (opened in 5 million (US$4. 4 million).
Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond painted 1758
Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond painted 1758

See also

External links

Paintings

Writings


Honorary titles
Preceded by
—		 President of the Royal Academy
1768–1792		 Succeeded by
Benjamin West

Books about Reynolds

Benjamin West RA ( October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was an Anglo - American painter of historical Tate is the United Kingdom 's national museum of British and Modern Art and is a network of four art galleries in England: Tate Britain (opened in
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