Joshua Reynolds English, 1723-1792

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) is considered a pioneer of British portraiture and is hailed as one of the most prominent artists across Europe. Born in Plympton, Devon, Reynolds had an intellectual upbringing owing to his father’s vocation as a headmaster and fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. In 1740, at the age of 17, he became apprentice to Thomas Hudson, a leading society painter in London. Reynolds went on to study the Old Masters in Italy before returning to London and setting up his own practice in 1752. Reynolds was highly in demand, his studio producing more than 2000 paintings. He was also active within intellectual circles, being friends with Samuel Johnson, David Garrick and Edmund Burke. Reynolds served as the Principal Painter to King George III from 1784 onwards, despite not being on good terms with the monarch. Although Reynolds held history painting in high esteem and sought to practice it, his popularity as a society portraitist cemented his legacy in that genre. 

Reynolds has produced many paintings of the wealthy and powerful of his time. His practice derived from that of Renaissance and classical art, urging artists to represent the imperfect perfectly. He endorsed this ‘grand style’ of painting that sought to idealise nature and took much inspiration from the Old Masters. He experimented with pigments and glazes such as carmines and bitumen which have led to the degradation of his paintings over time. Reynolds was instrumental in establishing the Royal Academy in 1768 and served as its first President. He exhibited extensively at the Academy, as well as other sites, and gave a series of lectures that he later published in the volume ‘Discourses on Art’. At the time of his death in 1792, Reynolds was held in the greatest esteem by his contemporaries and celebrated as a leading British painter.