SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course
Sir Joshua Reynolds was one of the greatest of English portrait painters; and as a painter of childhood he has no superior. He was a rapid worker, and it is estimated by some authorities that he finished as many as 3,000 portraits. His career was one long series of successes, and he made an immense fortune by his painting.
Reynolds was born in Devonshire, England, on July 16, 1723. Thomas Hudson was his first teacher. Then the young artist visited Italy. There he studied carefully the works of the old masters. He returned to London and almost immediately was accorded first place among the portrait painters of the day. At the same time he became one of the leading members of the famous Literary Club, among whose members were Doctor Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith, the authors, David Garrick, the leading actor of the time, and other men prominent in the fields of art and letters.
The British Royal Academy was founded in 1768, and its first president was Reynolds. There he distinguished himself by delivering his famous “Discourses” on art. With these he proved himself to be as much a master of words as of the brush.
Reynolds’ success and prosperity naturally made his less fortunate rivals jealous of him; at the same time his attitude towards some of them was not altogether generous. In particular his relations with Gainsborough were not pleasant. Nevertheless, Reynolds went to Gainsborough’s deathbed, and there was an apparent reconciliation.
In 1784, at the death of Ramsay, Reynolds was appointed painter to the king. Two years before a stroke of paralysis had attacked him; but he was able to resume his painting after a month of rest. In the summer of 1789, however, his sight began to fail. Nevertheless, he continued to practise his art until about the end of 1790. But from then on he began to sink gradually. He suffered for only a few months, and on February 23, 1792, passed peacefully away.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, though a great artist, lacked academic education, and therefore he never could draw the human figure properly. He sacrificed this ability to secure a thorough knowledge of the great paintings of the world, their faults and their excellencies.
He also had a tendency to tamper with his pigments. It is said that one day the famous American artist, Gilbert Stuart, was copying one of Reynolds’ fine heads in a very warm room. Suddenly he noticed that one eye on the painting seemed to be moving downward. At first he thought his imagination was playing him false; but finally he was convinced that the eye was moving. He quickly removed the painting to a cold room, and gradually worked the eye back in place. It was then that he discovered that his great predecessor had used wax in his pigments. This explained something that had baffled artists for years—the brilliant transparency of many of Reynolds’ colors.