Reynolds (SIR JOSHUA an English portrait)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

SIR JOSHUA, an English portrait and subject painter; born in Plympton Earls, near Plymouth, July 16, 1723. His father, a clergyman and master of Plympton grammar school, intended him for the medical profession; but he developed a strong aptitude for painting, was continually studying the plates in Cat's "Book of Emblems," Dryden's "Plutarch," and the other volumes that came in his way, and at the age of eight had mastered the "Jesuit's Perspective," and applied its principles to drawings executed by himself. In October, 1740, accordingly, he was sent to London to study art, and placed in the studio of Thomas Hudson, a portrait painter. In 1743 he returned to Devonshire, and some of the portraits of local worthies which he then produce uced still exist. In the following year he was again in London pursuing his art; but in the beginning of 1747, after the death of his father, he settled in Plymouth Dock, now Devonport, where he learned much from a study of the works of William Gandy of Exeter. In 1749 he made the acquaintance of Commodore, afterward Lord, Keppel, who invited A-Cyc him to accompany him on a cruise in the Mediterranean; and, after painting many of the British officers in Minorca, he made his way to Rome, where he studied Raphael and Michelangelo and in the Vatican caught a chill which permanently affected his hearing. He also visited Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Parma, and Venice. Returning to England in October, 1752, he soon afterward established himself in a studio in St. Martin's Lane, London, and attracted notice by his portraits of the second Duke of Devonshire and Commodore Kep- SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS pel. Before long he was in excellent practice, and in the year 1755 he had no fewer than 120 sitters. In 1760, he purchased a mansion on the W. side of Leicester Square, to which he added a studio and reception room. In 1764 he founded the famous liter ary club of which Dr. Johnson, Garrick, Burke, Goldsmith, Boswell, and Sheridan were members; all of whom were portrayed by his brush. He was one of the earliest members of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and contributed to its exhibitions till 1768, when, on the establishment of the Royal Academy, he was elected its first president; and in the following year received the honor of knighthood from the king. In 1769 he delivered the first of his " Discourses " to the students of the Academy, 15 of which have been published. They are Vol 8 full of valuable and well-considered instruction, and, along with his papers on art in the "Idler," his annotations to Du Fresnoy's "Art of Painting," and his "Notes on the Art of the Low Countries," show a correct and cultivated literary style. He contributed his picture of Miss. Morris as "Hope nursing Love" to the first exhibition of the Royal Academy, along with his portraits of the Duchess of Manchester, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Crewe, and Mrs. Bouverie; and in 1771 completed his subject of "Count Ugolino and his Children in the Dungeon," on, usually regarded as his most successful effort in the direction of historical art. In 1784 he succeeded Allan Ramsay as painter to the king; in the same year he finished and exhibited his portrait of Mrs. Siddons as the "Tragic Muse," undoubtedly his greatest portrait, and in 1787 he undertook three subjects for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, executing beth," and "The Death of Cardinal Beaufort." He suffered a slight attack of paralysis in 1782, and in 1789 his sight became affected. The following year was embittered by an unfortunate dispute with the Academy which led to his resignation of the presidentship, a resolution which he afterward considered and rescinded; and on Dec. 10, 10, 1790, he delivered his last "Discourse " to the students. He died Feb. 23, 1792. It is in virtue of his portraits that Reynolds ranks as the head of the English school of art. In the dignity of their style, the power and expressiveness of their handling, the variety and appropriateness of their attitudes, in the beauty of their coloring and the delicacy of their flesh-painting, his portraits have never been surpassed. His efforts in the higher departments of historical and imaginative art were less successful. In his technical methods Reynolds was unfortunately most careless and uncertain. He was continually experimenting in new processes and untried combinations of pigments, with the result that even in his own lifetime his works deteriorated, especially in their flesh-tints. Personally Reynolds was a man of fine and varied culture, and he was distinguished by an exquisite urbanity, the expression of a most amiable and equable disposition, which was exceptionally fitted to win and retain friendship. The first great collection of the works of Reynolds was brought together by the British Institution in 1813, and numbered 142 pictures. His authentic works have been estimated by Taylor to number between 2,000 and 3,000; and from these some 700 engravings have been B-Cyc RHAMNACEÆ executed, some of them-such as the mezzotints of J. R. Smith, John Dixon, William Dickinson, and James M'Ardell - ranking among the finest examples of the art.