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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61c4c57 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50315 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50315) diff --git a/old/50315-0.txt b/old/50315-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d0d9e4b..0000000 --- a/old/50315-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1839 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reynolds, by Randall Davies - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Reynolds - -Author: Randall Davies - -Release Date: October 26, 2015 [EBook #50315] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REYNOLDS *** - - - - -Produced by Shaun Pinder, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - REYNOLDS - - UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME - - ROMNEY - - Containing sixteen examples of the master’s work - - VELASQUEZ - - Containing sixteen examples of the master’s work - - A. AND C. BLACK, 4 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. - - [Illustration: MISS NELLY O’BRIEN - - 1763. Wallace Collection, London] - - - - - REYNOLDS - - BY - RANDALL DAVIES - - CONTAINING SIXTEEN EXAMPLES IN COLOUR - OF THE MASTER’S WORK - - LONDON - ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK - 1913 - - PRINTED AT - THE BALLANTYNE PRESS - LONDON - - - - -PREFACE - - -The chief authorities on the life and work of Reynolds are James -Northcote, R.A., his most successful pupil; Henry William Beechey, and -C. R. Leslie, R.A., each of whom produced a two-volume work on the -subject. The first of these appeared in 1819, seventeen years after Sir -Joshua’s death; the next in 1835, and the last, edited by Tom Taylor, in -1865. - -Besides these capital works there are memoirs by Joseph Farington, R.A., -by Edmund Malone, by William Cotton, by William Mason, and by Allan -Cunningham in his “Lives of the British Painters,” all of which appeared -in the earlier half of the last century. - -From such an abundance of material, to say nothing of modern -publications, it is hardly possible to collect everything that is of -value within the limits of a short memoir. Only such points as are in -themselves essential, or seem significant in relation to the enormous -influence of Reynolds on his contemporaries, has it been attempted to -dwell upon. - -R. D. - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -1. Miss Nelly O’Brien (1763) _Wallace Collection, London_ _Frontispiece_ - - _Facing p._ -2. Captain Orme (1761) _National Gallery, London_ 2 - -3. The Strawberry Girl (1773) _Wallace Collection, London_ 4 - -4. Lady Cockburn and Her - Children (1773) _National Gallery, London_ 6 - -5. Miss Bowles (1775) _Wallace Collection, London_ 8 - -6. Portrait of Two - Gentlemen (1778) _National Gallery, London_ 12 - -7. Mrs. Carnac (1778) _Wallace Collection, London_ 16 - -8. Lady and Child (1780 ?) _National Gallery, London_ 20 - -9. Admiral Keppel (1780) “ “ “ 22 - -10. Mrs. Hoare and Child - (1783 ?) _Wallace Collection, London_ 24 - -11. Mrs. Robinson - (“Perdita”) (1784 ?) “ “ “ 28 - -12. Lord Heathfield (1787) _National Gallery, London_ 36 - -13. The Age of Innocence (1788) “ “ “ 44 - -14. Mrs. Braddyl (1788 or 1789) _Wallace Collection, London_ 46 - -15. Mrs. Siddons as the - Tragic Muse (1789) _Dulwich Gallery_ 48 - -16. Mrs. Nesbit with a Dove _Wallace Collection, London_ 52 - - - - -SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS - - -When Benjamin West, a native of Pennsylvania, was elected President of -the Royal Academy, on the death of Reynolds in 1792, he found the arts -in a state of prosperity which could hardly have been predicted when -Reynolds began painting in London just half a century earlier. To -attribute this happy improvement to his illustrious predecessor alone -would have been more than was fair to West himself, and in giving to Sir -Joshua the fullest credit for his share in it, the claims of one or two -great painters and of more lesser lights than can readily be counted -must not be overlooked. But, when all have been fairly considered, it is -to Reynolds that the highest tribute is due for having helped, by -precept as well as by practice, to raise the arts from the low estate in -which he found them at the outset of his career to the proud position in -which they stood at the close of the eighteenth century. “He was the -first Englishman,” said Edmund Burke, “who added the praise of the -elegant arts to the other glories of his country.” - -Looking back, as we now may, over the whole extent of British painting -in the eighteenth century, we may say still more than this, namely that -while others practised the profession of painting Reynolds dignified it. -Painting in England had never been an art, it was little more than a -business; and there was small hope of it ever becoming anything better -when a really considerable painter like Kneller was content simply to -fill his pockets from the profits of an emporium for fashionable -portraits without caring in the least as to their quality so long as he -got his price. - -Kneller, however, was a German. What was wanted for English Art was an -Englishman. Sir James Thornhill, and his forceful son-in-law, William -Hogarth, were both bold and successful in attempting what they could, -each in his particular way, to root the plant in the soil. But neither -had the necessary combination of those two qualities, greatness and -dignity, which was essential for effecting so great a task as bringing -the plant to maturity. Thornhill had the dignity without the greatness, -Hogarth something of the greatness without the - -[Illustration: CAPTAIN ORME - -1761. National Gallery, London] - -dignity; and it was left to Reynolds, in whom these two qualities, -abundantly evident, were blended in such nice proportions, to foster, if -not to found, one of the most vigorous schools of painting that the -world has ever seen. - -Dignity, it may be observed, is a dangerous quality when not -accompanied, or alloyed, by others more human. If not nicely balanced it -is only too liable to swerve to pomposity on the one hand, or empty -affability or condescension on the other. That Reynolds never swayed -perceptibly in either direction it would hardly be true to assert. His -pedantic observations on his great contemporaries, Hogarth, Gainsborough -and Wilson, and the patronising tone of some of his conversations with -the younger men, would be less forgivable were it not that one realises -how great a man he was. There are many passages in his Discourses that, -taken by themselves, are apt to exasperate; but when we consider the -work he actually accomplished, the example he afforded, and the -knowledge of his art which by his application he added to his natural -gifts, we cannot fail to see how paramount his influence has been on the -whole course of English Art in his own and succeeding times. - -That he was an Englishman is a fact which nowadays it may seem -unnecessary to emphasise. But how easy it is to forget that a very -considerable number of the painters whose works are included in those of -“the British School” were not born in England. That the very greatest of -all were natives--namely, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Romney, -Lawrence, Constable and Turner--is certainly gratifying to the national -pride; and it may be added that with the exception of Romney all of -these were born south of the Trent. Scotland has given us Raeburn, and -Wales Richard Wilson. But with the exception of the miniaturists, Isaac -and Peter Oliver, Nicholas Hilyard and Samuel Cooper, there was no -English artist of note before the eighteenth century; the influence of -Holbein, Vandyke, Lely, Kneller, and the rest who worked in England, was -never strong enough to awaken a response in the country of their -adoption. In later and modern times the British School has been enriched -from various quarters: by West, Copley, Whistler, Abbey, and Sargent -from across the Atlantic; by Alma Tadema from Holland and Hubert von -Herkomer from Germany, to mention only a few of the more notable names. -But the - -[Illustration: THE STRAWBERRY GIRL - -1773. Wallace Collection, London] - -number of British artists is now so great, to say nothing of their -strength, that these accessions count for little in the great stream -whose fountainhead, to return to the point from which we start, was -Joshua Reynolds. - -It was at Plympton in Devonshire that Reynolds was born, on July 16, -1723. His father, the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, was headmaster of a school -in the parish. His mother’s maiden name was Theophila Potter. He was the -tenth of eleven children--no uncommon number for a country parson in -England. He is said to have been called Joshua in expectation of -possible benevolence from an uncle of that name who lived in the -neighbourhood. Perhaps this was an afterthought, for his name is entered -in the register of baptisms at Plympton as Joseph. - -Like many, if not most, of his fellow-geniuses he developed a taste for -the arts at a very early age. His father, with that lack of foresight -which may almost be called a characteristic of parents, is known to have -endorsed one of his sons earliest efforts, executed during school-hours, -“Done by Joshua out of pure idleness.” “His first essays,” Malone tells -us, “were copying some slight drawings made by two of his sisters, who -had a turn for art; he afterwards eagerly copied such prints as he met -with among his father’s books, particularly those which were given in -the translation of Plutarch’s lives published by Dryden. But his -principal fund of imitation was Jacob Catts’s Book of Emblems, which his -great-grandmother by the father’s side, a Dutchwoman, had brought with -her from Holland.” - -Trivial as these anecdotes of early efforts may in very many cases be -held, it is here of the very greatest interest to compare the beginnings -of Reynolds’s genius with those of his only formidable rival, -Gainsborough. For in both we so plainly see “the child the father of the -man” that, were it not that we have both of the accounts on sufficiently -trustworthy authority, we might well suppose them to have been supplied -merely to feed the popular imagination of what ought to have been. “A -beautiful wood of four miles in extent,” Allan Cunningham tells us, “was -Gainsborough’s first inspiration when but a child, in Suffolk. Scenes -are pointed out where he used to sit and fill his copy-books with -pencillings of flowers, and trees, and whatever pleased his fancy; and -it is said that these early attempts of the child bore a distinct - -[Illustration: LADY COCKBURN AND HER CHILDREN - -1773. National Gallery, London] - -resemblance to the mature works of the man. At ten years old he had made -some progress in sketching, and at twelve he was a confirmed painter.” - -Reynolds’s father was not long, however, in awaking to Joshua’s talents, -for the boy was not more than about eight years old when, after perusing -a book entitled “The Jesuit’s Perspective,” he made a drawing of -Plympton School which effected a complete revolution in the state of the -parental mind. “This is what the author of the ‘Perspective’ asserts in -his preface,” cried the worthy father, “that by observing the rules laid -down in this book a man may do wonders--for this is wonderful!” - -After this portentous revelation Joshua was allowed to devote himself -more seriously to his favourite pursuit, and his classical studies were -sacrificed to the more congenial occupation of drawing likenesses of his -relations and friends, and to the perusal of Richardson’s treatise on -painting, which gave him his first acquaintance with the beauties of the -great Italian Masters. - -To the author of this work, Jonathan Richardson the elder, some slight -tribute is due in speaking of the formation and development of the -English School of Painting, so far at all events as it was influenced -by the study of the Italian Masters. Horace Walpole considered him one -of the best painters of a head that had appeared in this country. “There -is strength, roundness, and boldness in his colouring,” he says, “but -his men want dignity and his women grace. The good sense of the nation -is characterised in his portraits. You see he lived in an age when -neither enthusiasm nor servility were predominant.” The treatise of -Richardson in which Reynolds formed his first acquaintance with the -Italian Masters was probably the “Essay on the whole Art of Criticism as -it relates to Painting,” which was published in 1719, bound up in one -volume with “An Argument in behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur.” -This was followed, in 1722, by an account of some of the statues, -bas-reliefs, drawings, and pictures in Italy, &c., with remarks by Mr. -Richardson, Senior and Junior. The son made the journey, and from his -notes they both compiled this valuable work. The father formed a large -collection of the drawings of Old Masters, many of which were acquired -and treasured by Reynolds. - -When he was eighteen years old, Reynolds was sent to London to study -painting under Thomas Hudson, the most successful portrait painter at -that - -[Illustration: MISS BOWLES - -1775 Wallace Collection, London] - -time, with whom he remained for two years. It is said that the relations -between master and pupil were not very happy, and that the reason for -Reynolds’s abrupt return to Devonshire was the success of one of his -portraits which had been hung by accident among Hudson’s productions. -However this may be, it appears that Reynolds had not wasted his time in -London, and it was during the next two or three years, when he had -returned to his native country and settled at Plymouth, that he painted -the portrait of himself (with his palette in his left hand, shading his -eyes with his right), besides being commissioned to paint Miss -Chudleigh, afterwards the notorious Duchess of Kingston, and the -Commissioner of Plymouth Dock. - -Northcote speaks of Reynolds’s pictures at this early period as being -“carelessly drawn and frequently in commonplace attitudes, like those of -his old master Hudson, with one hand hid in the waistcoat, and the hat -under the arm--a very favourite attitude with portrait painters at that -time, because particularly convenient to the artist, as by it he got rid -of the tremendous difficulty of painting the hand.” Apropos of which -Northcote proceeds to relate an anecdote which he says he had heard so -often and on such authority that he apprehended it to be a truth: - -“One gentleman whose portrait Reynolds had painted desired to have his -hat on his head in the picture, which was quickly finished, in a -commonplace attitude, done without much study, and sent home; where, on -inspection, it was soon discovered that although this gentleman in his -portrait had one hat upon his head, yet there was another under his -arm.” - -A fine specimen of his accomplishments at this early period is a small -“conversation piece”--that is to say, an elaborate family group, painted -in the year 1746, which is now in the possession of Lord St. Germans, at -Port Eliot, near Plymouth. I have not seen the original, but Mr. George -Harland Peck has a small version of it in water-colour, which he was -kind enough to allow me to reproduce in the Portfolio Monograph No. 48 -(“English Society of the Eighteenth Century in Contemporary Art”). In -this composition there are no less than eleven figures, grouped in -various attitudes about the steps at a corner of the family mansion. The -central figure, standing, is Edward, afterwards created Lord Eliot. On -his left are seated his father and mother, Richard and Harriot Eliot. On -his right are standing two of his sisters, and Captain Hamilton -(ancestor of the Duke of Abercorn) with a child on his shoulders. A boy -on his right, two children seated in the foreground, and a Mrs. -Goldsworthy on the extreme right of the picture complete the -composition. - -As the work of a country youth of twenty-three this is certainly a very -remarkable performance. Hogarth and some of his minor contemporaries -were at this date producing “conversation pieces” of more or less merit, -but we must look to Holland or France for anything on this scale. Only -once again did Reynolds attempt anything approaching so comprehensive a -survey of family portraiture on a single canvas, namely the Marlborough -group at Blenheim, containing eight figures besides several dogs, of -which a very spirited little sketch in oils is now in the National -Gallery. - -But Reynolds’s greatest good fortune at Plymouth, as it afterwards -proved, was his introduction to Lord Mount Edgcumbe, who became his most -valuable patron when he returned to London, and to Captain Keppel, whose -kindness enabled him to visit Italy instead of settling down as a -provincial portrait painter, with nothing better by way of example than -the hopeless decadence that followed as a natural consequence on the -slovenly indifference of Kneller. In 1749 Keppel was appointed -Commodore of the Mediterranean station, and invited Reynolds to -accompany him. He willingly accepted the invitation, and remained in -Italy for over three years. How he profited by this opportunity for -studying the works of the greatest masters may be gathered from numerous -passages in his memoranda and in the “Discourses;” and to discover the -secret of his success, both in practice and in precept, we have only to -read in his own words the story of the ceaseless activity of a mind -unalterably bent on utilising every opportunity for improving his art. -Let us begin with the passage in which he confesses to have found -himself disappointed with the works of Raphael. “I did not for a moment -conceive or suppose,” he writes, “that the name of Raphael and those -admirable paintings in particular owed their reputation to the ignorance -and prejudice of mankind; on the contrary, my not relishing them as I -was conscious I ought to have done was one of the most humiliating -circumstances that ever happened to me: I found myself in the midst of -works executed upon principles with which I was unacquainted; I felt my -ignorance and stood abashed. - -“All the indigested notions of painting which I had brought with me from -England, where art was in - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF TWO GENTLEMEN - -1778. National Gallery, London] - -the lowest state it had ever been in (it could not, indeed, be lower), -were to be totally done away and eradicated from my mind. It was -necessary, as it is expressed on a very solemn occasion, that I should -become _as a little child_.” - -Ignorance, then, was the first obstacle to be overcome. It was -ignorance, as Beechey so truly points out in the introduction to his -Memoir of Reynolds, ignorance of the dignity and creative powers of art, -that made the works of his predecessors inferior to those of modern -times; and it was the light derived from intellectual sources, operating -upon a powerful and discriminating mind, that enabled him to attain a -higher degree of excellence. “We may fairly assume,” Beechey continues, -“that the productions of this admirable painter gave the first great -stimulus to British art and showed to British artists the extent of -their deficiencies and the means by which they might be remedied ... but -we may venture to affirm that if he had never enjoyed the opportunities -of comparing the results of his early education with the works of -Italian genius, he would never have attained that high superiority which -is now so universally allowed to him ... it was the study of those -principles on which Raphael and Michel Angelo had formed their -comprehensive and elevated views of nature which first enabled Reynolds -to perceive his own deficiencies, to appreciate the value of -intellectual art, and to employ it in dignifying that of his country.” - -This was written, be it observed, in 1835, at a time when the art of -portraiture was fast descending from the heights to which Reynolds, -Gainsborough and Romney had raised it to depths almost as low as those -in which it had sunk a century earlier. Hoppner and Lawrence, the last -of the great men, had left no one to carry on the tradition, and had -contributed in some measure to its extinction by faults of manner which -were fatally easy to imitate. Shallow and slipshod imitation soon became -the fashionable cloak to cover the bare bones of the old -skeleton--ignorance--and the early Victorian age could produce nothing -in the way of portraiture which is now looked at without contempt. - -As to the methods by which this ignorance was to be overcome, it is to -be observed that when lecturing at the Academy in his later days Sir -Joshua was constantly urging upon the students the necessity for -generalisation. “The man of true genius,” he says, “instead of spending -all his hours, as many artists do while they are at Rome, in measuring -statues and copying pictures, soon begins to think for himself, and -endeavours to do something like what he sees. I consider general copying -a delusive kind of industry.” And again, “Instead of copying the touches -of those great masters, copy only their conceptions; instead of treading -in their footsteps, endeavour only to keep the same road; labour to -invent on their general principles and way of thinking; possess yourself -with their spirit; consider with yourself how a Michel Angelo or a -Raphael would have treated this subject, and work yourself into a belief -that your picture is to be seen and criticised by them when completed; -even an attempt of this kind will rouse your powers.” - -That this determination to look at his art in the broadest possible -spirit was the dominant factor in his success is continually evident at -every point in his career. The breadth and sincerity of this view are so -faithfully reflected in every single work he achieved that it seems -rather to character than to genius that he owes his high place among -painters. That it was not so may be readily admitted when we remember -other painters--for instance, Benjamin West and George Morland--who -were gifted with one or other of those two qualities only; but the -combination of the two carried Reynolds as high as Gainsborough, and far -higher than any one else. “One who has a genius,” he writes (as early as -1759), “will comprehend in his idea the whole of his work at once; -whilst he who is deficient in genius amuses himself in trifling parts of -small consideration, attends with scrupulous exactness to the minuter -matters only, which he finishes to a nicety, whilst the whole together -has a very ill effect.” - -This striving after generalisation, seeing things whole, is noticed by -Edmund Burke as almost the chief characteristic of Reynolds’s genius. -Malone requested Burke to “throw his thoughts on paper relative to Sir -Joshua,” at the time when he was preparing his Life, and Burke complied -with the request in the following short summary, which is printed in -Leslie and Taylor’s Life of Sir Joshua. - -“He was a great generaliser, and was fond of reducing everything to one -system; more, perhaps, than the variety of principles which operate in -the human mind, and in every human work, will properly endure. But this -disposition to abstractions, generalisations and classifications is the -great glory - -[Illustration: MRS. CARNAC - -1778. Wallace Collection, London] - -of the human mind; that, indeed, which most distinguishes man from other -animals, and is the source of everything that can be called science. - -“I believe his early acquaintance with Mr. Mudge, of Exeter [the Rev. -Zachariah Mudge, a dissenting minister], a very learned and thinking -man, much inclined to philosophise in the spirit of the Platonists, -disposed him to this habit. He certainly by that means liberalised in a -high degree the theory of his own art; and if he had been more -methodically instituted in the early part of his life, and had possessed -more leisure for study and reflection, he would in my opinion have -pursued this method with great success. - -“He had a strong turn for humour, and well saw the weak sides of things. -He enjoyed every circumstance of his good fortune and had no affectation -on that subject. And I do not know a fault or weakness of his that he -did not convert into something that bordered on a virtue, instead of -pushing it to the confines of a vice. E. B.” - -“Genius,” Johnson wrote, “is chiefly exerted in historical pictures, and -the art of the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of -the subject. But it is in painting as in life: what is greatest is not -always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to -goddesses, to empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now -employed in diffusing friendship, in renewing tenderness, in quickening -the affections of the absent and continuing the presence of the dead. -Every man is always present to himself, and has therefore little need of -his own resemblance; nor can he desire it but for the sake of those whom -he loves and by whom he hopes to be remembered. This use of the art is a -natural and reasonable consequence of affection, and though, like all -other human actions, it is often complicated with pride, yet even such -pride is more laudable than that by which palaces are covered with -pictures that, however excellent, neither imply the owners virtue nor -excite it.” - -This was written to combat the assertion that Sir Joshua, in confining -himself to portraiture, was hardly practising what he was always -preaching. But preaching was very much wanted at this stage of the -development of art in England, though not exactly the preaching of the -Established Church. The Dean of Gloucester had said on the occasion of a -meeting of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, that he -thought a pinmaker was a more useful and valuable member of society -than Raphael. Reynolds was of the contrary opinion, which he committed -to paper: - -“This is an observation of a very narrow mind; a mind that is confined -to the mere object of commerce; that sees with a microscopic eye but a -part of the great machine of the economy of life, and thinks that small -part which he sees to be the whole. - -“Commerce is the means, not the end, of happiness or pleasure. The end -is a rational enjoyment of life by means of arts and sciences. It is -therefore the highest degree of folly to set the means in a higher rank -of esteem than the accomplished end. It is as much as to say that the -brickmaker is a more useful member of society than the architect who -employs him. The usefulness of the brickmaker is acknowledged, but the -rank of him and of the architect are very different. - -“No man deserves better of mankind than he who has the art of opening -sources of intellectual pleasure and instruction by means of the -senses.” - - * * * * * - -On his return from his three years’ tour in 1752 Reynolds lost no time -in setting up his easel as a professional painter in London. The effects -of his studies in Italy were too obvious to escape notice, and as the -arts at that time were scarcely, if at all, deserving of kindlier -mention than Reynolds has given them in the passage above quoted, it is -hardly surprising that he was subject to some adverse criticism. Hudson, -his former master, after looking at a _Boy in a Turban_--a portrait of -his pupil Marchi, now one of the treasured possessions of the Royal -Academy--which had just been painted, told him that he didn’t paint as -well as when he left England. A pupil of Kneller objected that he didn’t -paint in the least like Sir Godfrey. But his success was now not far -off, and with the full-length portrait of Keppel, which was painted in -1753, he sprang into fame. - -“With this picture,” says Farington, in his Memoir of Reynolds published -in 1819, “he took great pains; for it was observed at the time that -after several sittings he defaced his work and began again. But his -labour was not lost; that excellent production was so much admired that -it completely established the reputation of the artist. Its dignity and -spirit, its beauty of colour and fine general effect occasioned equal -surprise and pleasure. The public, hitherto accustomed to see only the -formal, tame representations which reduced all persons to the same -standard of unmeaning insipidity, were captivated with this - -[Illustration: LADY AND CHILD - -1780? National Gallery, London] - -display of animated character, and the report of its attraction was soon -widely circulated.” - -Malone is not less enthusiastic. “The whole interval between the time of -Charles I and the conclusion of the reign of George II,” he observes, -“though distinguished by the performances of Lely, Riley, and Kneller, -seemed to be annihilated, and the only question was whether the new -painter or Vandyck were the more excellent. For several years before the -period we are now speaking of the painters of portraits contented -themselves with exhibiting as correct a resemblance as they could, but -seemed not to have thought, or had not the power, of enlivening the -canvas by giving a kind of historic air to their pictures. Mr. Reynolds -... instead of confining himself to mere likeness (in which, however, he -was eminently happy) dived, as it were, into the minds and habits and -manners of those who sat to him; and accordingly the majority of his -portraits are so appropriate and characteristic that the many -illustrious persons whom he has delineated will be almost as well known -to posterity as if they had seen and conversed with them.” - - * * * * * - -A slight gap in the story of Reynolds’s earlier days is usefully filled -by an essay entitled, “Observations on Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Method of -Colouring,” and published by William Cotton in 1859. It had been written -many years before by William Mason, the author of “Odes on Memory” and -other poetical works. Mason was, besides, an amateur painter, and was -always admitted to Sir Joshua’s painting room unless he had a sitter for -a portrait. When not so occupied, he tells us, Reynolds was always -retouching an old master, or had some beggar or poor child sitting to -him, because he always chose to have nature before his eyes. Mason -mentions the effect of the portrait of Keppel in attracting others to -Reynolds, among the first being the young Lords Huntingdon and Stormont, -who had just returned from the grand tour. As though determined to -follow up the success of his _Captain Keppel_ with as bold an effort in -another direction, he challenged comparison with Vandyck by painting the -two young lords at full length on the same canvas. - -“It was upon seeing this picture,” Mason continues, “that Lord -Holderness was induced to sit for his portrait (which he was afterwards -pleased to make me a present of), on which occasion he employed me to go -to the painter and fix with him his Lordship’s time of - -[Illustration: ADMIRAL KEPPEL - -1780. National Gallery, London] - -sitting. Here our acquaintance commenced; and as he permitted me to -attend every sitting, I shall here set down the observations I made upon -his manner of painting at this early time, which to the best of my -remembrance was in the year 1754. - -“On his light-coloured canvas he had already laid a ground of white, -where he meant to place the head, and which was still wet. He had -nothing upon his palette but flake-white, lake, and black; and without -making any previous sketch or outline, he began with much celerity to -scumble these pigments together, till he had produced, in less than an -hour, a likeness sufficiently intelligible yet withal, as might be -expected, cold and pallid to the last degree. At the second sitting he -added, I believe, to the three other colours a little Naples yellow; but -I do not remember that he used any vermilion, neither then nor at the -third trial ... lake alone might produce the carnation required. However -this be, the portrait turned out a striking likeness, and the attitude, -so far as a three-quarters canvas would admit, perfectly natural and -peculiar to his person, which at all times bespoke a fashioned -gentleman. His drapery was crimson velvet, copied from a coat he then -wore, and apparently not only painted but glazed with lake, which has -stood at this hour perfectly well; though the face, which as well as the -whole picture was highly varnished before he sent it home, very soon -faded; and soon after the forehead particularly cracked, almost to -peeling off, which it would have done long since had not his pupil -Doughty repaired it.” - - * * * * * - -Among Sir Joshua’s memoranda is the following very candid account of his -efforts to improve himself in his art, which is printed in Beechey’s -Memoir: - -“Not having had the advantage of an early academical education, I never -had that facility of drawing the naked figure which an artist ought to -have. It appeared to me too late, when I went to Italy and began to feel -my own deficiencies, to endeavour to acquire that readiness of invention -which I observed others to possess. I consoled myself, however, by -remarking that these ready inventors are extremely apt to acquiesce in -imperfections, and that if I had not their facility I should for this -very reason be more likely to avoid the defect which too often -accompanies it--a trite and commonplace mode of invention. - -“How difficult it is for the artist who possesses this facility to guard -against carelessness and commonplace invention is well known, and in a -kindred art - -[Illustration: MRS. HOARE AND CHILD - -1783? Wallace Collection, London] - -Metastasio is an eminent instance, who always complained of the great -difficulty he found in attaining correctness in consequence of his -having been in his youth an _improvisatore_. Having this defect -constantly in my mind I never was contented with commonplace attitudes -or inventions of any kind. I considered myself as playing a great game, -and instead of beginning to save money I laid it out faster than I got -it in purchasing the best examples of art that could be procured; for I -even borrowed money for this purpose. The possession of pictures by -Titian, Vandyck, Rembrandt, &c., I considered as the best kind of -wealth. - -“By carefully studying the works of great masters this advantage is -obtained--we find that certain niceties of expression are capable of -being executed which otherwise we might suppose beyond the reach of art. -This gives us confidence in ourselves; and we are thus invited to -endeavour at not only the same happiness of execution, but also at other -congenial excellencies. Study, indeed, consists in learning to see -nature, and may be called the art of using other men’s minds. By this -kind of contemplation and exercise we are taught to think in their way, -and sometimes to attain their excellence. Thus, for instance, if I had -never seen any of the works of Correggio I should never, perhaps, have -remarked in nature the expression that I find in one of his pictures; or -if I had remarked it I might have thought it too difficult or perhaps -impossible to be executed. - -“My success and continued improvement in my art, if I may be allowed -that expression, may be ascribed in a good measure to a principle which -I will boldly recommend to imitation: I mean the principle of honesty; -which in this, as in all other instances, is, according to the vulgar -proverb, certainly the best policy.--I always endeavoured to do my best. -Great or vulgar, good subjects or bad, all had nature, by the exact -representation of which, or even by the endeavour to give such a -representation, the painter cannot but improve in his art. - -“My principal labour was employed on the whole together, and I was never -weary of changing and trying different modes and different effects. I -had always some scheme in my mind, and a perpetual desire to advance. By -constantly endeavouring to do my best I acquired a power of doing that -with spontaneous facility which was at first the whole effort of my -mind; and my reward was threefold: the satisfaction resulting from -acting on this just principle, improvement in my art, and the pleasure -derived from a constant pursuit after excellence. - -“I was always willing to believe that my uncertainty of proceeding in my -works--that is, my never being sure of my hand, and my frequent -alterations--arose from a refined taste which could not acquiesce in -anything short of a high degree of excellence. I had not an opportunity -of being early initiated in the principles of colouring; no man, indeed, -could teach me. If I have never been settled with respect to colouring, -let it at the same time be remembered that my unsteadiness in this -respect proceeded from an inordinate desire to possess every kind of -excellence that I saw in the works of others, without considering that -there is in colouring, as in style, excellencies which are incompatible -with each other; however, this pursuit, or, indeed, any similar pursuit, -prevents the artist from being tired of his art. - -“We all know how often those masters who sought after colouring changed -their manner, while others, merely from not seeing various modes, -acquiesced all their lives in that with which they set out. On the -contrary, I tried every effect of colour; and leaving out every colour -in its turn, showed every colour that I could do without it. As I -alternately left out every colour, I tried every new colour, and often, -it is well known, failed. The former practice, I am aware, may be -compared by those whose chief object is ridicule to that of the poet -mentioned in the _Spectator_ who, in a poem of twenty-four books, -contrived in each book to leave out a letter. But I was influenced by no -such idle or foolish affectation. My fickleness in the mode of colour -arose from an eager desire to attain the highest excellence. This is the -only merit I assume to myself from my conduct in that respect.” - - * * * * * - -From the entries in his pocket-book for 1755 it appears that no fewer -than 120 people sat to Reynolds in that year, though he had only been -established in London since the end of 1752. The pocket-book for 1756 is -lost. In 1758, his busiest year of all, the number rose to 150. - -Two large military portraits exhibited in 1761 confirmed the reputation -of the new painter, namely those of Captain Orme and Lord Ligonier. With -these the public is more familiar than that of Keppel, as both are in -the National Gallery, and they serve as well as any others to illustrate -the extraordinary advance which their production marked in the history - -[Illustration: MRS. ROBINSON (“PERDITA”) - -1784? Wallace Collection, London] - -of English portraiture, and indeed of painting in general. The passages -previously quoted from Farington and Malone can hardly be regarded as -over-florid when we try to imagine the effect of the sudden appearance -of a portrait like that of Captain Orme in a country which was -absolutely barren of fine painting. It is true that Hogarth had lately -wrought several wonderfully vigorous achievements in unconventional -portraiture, one or two of which--notably the _Bishop of -Winchester_--are to be seen in an adjoining room at the National -Gallery. But Hogarth was never a portrait painter, and admirable as his -peculiar qualities were, to compare him with Reynolds is very much like -comparing a blacksmith with a sculptor. Hogarth’s brush was like a -sledge-hammer; every stroke went home, and his extraordinarily vivid -presentments of Lord Boyne, Simon Lord Lovat, Captain Coram, and others -seem rather to have been forged than painted--I do not, of course, mean -counterfeited! Of other portraiture there was really none, beyond the -skill of facial resemblance with which Walpole credits Jonathan -Richardson, and the lackadaisical reminiscences of what had been worst -in Kneller. - -Placed among several of the best works of Reynolds’s maturer period, as -it is to-day, the _Captain Orme_ can hardly fail to arrest the attention -alike of student or casual visitor. Whatever technical deficiencies the -learned may discover in it--deficiencies which, as we have seen, he was -never too ignorant to confess or too indolent to let be--the whole -picture is stamped with the character of greatness. - -To us there is no strangeness, no surprise, in the originality of the -composition, as there was to its first beholders. To us the easy pose of -the figure standing beside the horse is only a source of enjoyment, and -we feel as it were that there could have been no other possible way of -painting the portrait with any success; that that was the one attitude -in which Captain Orme appeared to any advantage. We recognise in it the -work of a great master without any question as to its place in the -history of painting. - -But consider what the effect of it must have been on the painters and -their patrons at the time of its appearance. Northcote describes the -picture as “an effort in composition so new to his barren competitors in -art as must have struck them with dismay; for they dared not venture on -such perilous flights of invention.” That there is little reason to -doubt that Northcote was right in suggesting dismay and timidity as the -prevailing emotions of the other painters may be allowed, if but for one -moment we can blot out from our minds the existence of all English -painting since that time. We can remember the effect produced upon the -Academicians by the appearance of Whistler; but in those recent days -opinion had been educated to recognise excellencies in painting, and it -was only the novelty and disregard of existing convention that disturbed -them. In 1750 the painters had had no such education, and they felt the -double shock of the revelation of superlative excellence combined with -startling novelty. - -Not that Reynolds must be regarded in any sense as a revolutionary. It -would be truer to say that he was a revivalist. We may smile at -Whistler’s naïve “Why drag in Velasquez?” but in the “originality” of -Reynolds’s _Commodore Keppel_ and _Captain Orme_ we see no more than the -fruits of a great mind fertilised by the continuous study of Vandyck and -the Italian masters. In a gallery of the great portraits of the world, -these achievements of Reynolds would fall as naturally into line with -those of the older masters as the regular productions of the -fashionable portrait painters of to-day assimilate with the thousands of -pictures amongst which they are hung upon the walls of the Royal -Academy. One might have said of them as Shakespeare said of the works of -Time: - - “_Thy pyramids built up with newer might_ - _To me are nothing novel, nothing strange,_ - _They are but dressings of a former sight._” - -With all, or even a few, of the splendid series of male portraits, of -which these two of Captain Orme and Lord Ligonier may be taken as the -beginning, it is impossible to deal in so short a memoir. Among the most -magnificent is that of Mr. Fane and his two guardians, from the Earl of -Westmorland’s collection, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New -York. This must have been painted at the best period of Reynolds’s -career, and shows him at the very top of his achievement in the painting -of portraits of men. Not far below it, however, is the _Lord -Heathfield_, which is here reproduced. This was one of the last -portraits he painted, and yet shows little signs of diminishing vigour -in the artist’s mind or hand. - -The _Lord Heathfield_ was exhibited in 1788, with sixteen other -portraits, in addition to the _Infant Hercules_, _Muscipula_, and the -_Sleeping Girl_. It is now in the National Gallery, and though it has -suffered somewhat from injury and retouching, it forms a noble close to -the chapter opened, so to speak, nearly thirty years back by the two -other warriors, Orme and Ligonier, with whom we started. Constable, -taking it as an example of what a picture may express besides the actual -likeness of the sitter, aptly describes it as “almost a history of the -defence of Gibraltar. The distant sea with a glimpse of the opposite -coast expresses the locality, and the cannon, pointed downward, the -height of the rock on which the hero stands, with the chain of the -massive key of the fortress twice passed round his hand as to secure it -in his grasp. He seems to say, ‘I have you, and will keep you!’” - - * * * * * - -With portraits of women Reynolds was even more successful in his early -days. Besides the exhibition of pictures in the April of the year 1761, -when the _Captain Orme_ and the _Lord Ligonier_ opened the public eyes -in wonder at the achievements of the new painter, the marriage and -coronation of King George III in September contributed, incidentally, to -advance the reputation of Reynolds in the portraiture of women. Of the -ten noble and lovely bridesmaids who bore the train of the Queen, three -of the most beautiful were painted by him in this year, namely, the -Ladies Caroline Russell, Elizabeth Keppel, and Sarah Lenox. The first -portrait, which is now at Woburn Abbey, is a half-length; Lady Caroline -is seated, in a garden, with a Blenheim spaniel in her lap, presumably -the gift of the Duke of Marlborough, whom she married the next year. The -other two, at Quidenham and Holland House, are better known from having -been mezzotinted. The former is a forecast, as it were, of the famous -trio at the National Gallery, Lady Elizabeth being represented at full -length, decorating a statue of Hymen. The composition is enriched by the -contrast of a negress, who holds up the wreaths of flowers to her -mistress. - -Lady Sarah Lenox shares the honours of her picture with Lady Susan -Strangways and Charles James Fox. She leans from a low window at Holland -House to take a dove from Lady Susan, while Fox--then quite a -youth--with a manuscript in his hand, urges them to come to a rehearsal -of some private theatricals. Of groups such as these it is much to be -regretted that Reynolds did not paint more. With his comprehensive -knowledge of the Old Masters he was better qualified than any English -painter to attempt them, and his youthful achievement of the Eliot -group, already mentioned, showed his natural capabilities before he had -been to Italy at all. It was possibly because Hogarth, and his minor -imitators, had made the “conversation piece” their own, and that when he -did paint a group, as the _Ladies Waldegrave_, or the three ladies -decorating a _Term of Hymen_, he saw no way but “the grand style,” and -sought to immortalise rather than to portray so much beauty collected -together. With men he was occasionally more prosaic, as is witnessed by -the two groups of the Dilettanti Society, now in the basement of the -Grafton Gallery; though we know that in this instance he took Paul -Veronese as his guide. - -Let us now turn to the other two--Lady Elizabeth Keppel and Lady -Caroline Russell--as the prototypes of his more usual portraits of -ladies, the whole and the half-length. - -A complete full-length picture of a woman offers more difficulties of -pose, proportion, light, colour, or any other particular, than are -overcome by any but a few of the greatest painters. Holbein has given us -the Duchess of Milan, and no more; and of all the full-length portraits -of Elizabeth and the ladies of her time, how many are there that have -any but historical or personal interest? In England Vandyck alone -succeeded in painting a picture of a complete woman, and when he was -gone the chance of immortality for women--I mean in pictures--was gone -too. I can recall no single whole-length portrait of Lely or Kneller -that is anything more than a conventional representation of the person. - -With the _Lady Elizabeth Keppel_ we are back to Vandyck again. With a -painter who could achieve a portrait like this, woman once again had the -chance of pictorial salvation, and like the sensible creature that she -is, jumped at it without any hesitation. To sit for her portrait was now -no longer a duty to her family, a bore, or at best a mere vanity, but a -thrill. - -Mrs. Bonfoy, one of the daughters of Lord Eliot in the family group of -1746, was among the first to experience it, sitting to Reynolds again -for a half-length in 1754. This portrait is still at Port Eliot, and is -described by Leslie as “one of his most beautiful female portraits, and -in perfect preservation. The lady is painted as a half-length in a green -dress, with one hand on her hip, and the head turned, with that -inimitable ease and - -[Illustration: LORD HEATHFIELD - -1787. National Gallery, London] - -high-bred grace of which Reynolds was a master beyond all the painters -who ever painted women.” This is indeed high praise for what was -probably the first female portrait he painted after his return from -Italy. But there is no doubt that Reynolds had now acquired enough -mastery over his “ignorance” to be capable of producing work which would -be comparable with anything he was to do in the future. Tom Taylor notes -another half-length painted in the spring of the following year in -hardly less glowing terms; it is of Mrs. Molesworth--“a young and lovely -brunette, in one of the quaint every-day dresses of the time, closely -copied, without the least attempt at ‘idealising’ or ‘generalising,’ -with flowers in her hand, a little cap on her head, a prim apron, and a -lawn kerchief closely covering her shoulders. It is one of the most -attractive of his female portraits, and especially valuable for its -literalness.” - -That his very earliest works should receive, and indeed deserve, such -commendation requires emphasising in order to restore to him a good deal -of the credit for the revival of portraiture in England which nowadays -is given to his only successful rivals, Gainsborough and Romney. The -fascination that Gainsborough’s natural genius throws over his -admirers--and Reynolds himself was not entirely unaffected by it--is apt -to blind them to the more solid merit of the other, and the fact that -Reynolds had achieved so much before Gainsborough had really started -painting portraits is apt to be overlooked. In 1751, when Sir Joshua had -fairly established his reputation, Gainsborough had only just left his -native place and settled in Bath, and it was not until 1774--twenty-one -years after Reynolds--that he came to London and seriously competed with -him for the public favour. Romney, again, although he was working in -London as early as 1761, was never a serious competitor till his return -from a two years’ tour in Italy in 1775. For twenty years at least then -Reynolds had practically as complete a monopoly of portraiture among the -nobility as Kneller had had at the opening of the century, and we have -only to think once in forming our estimate of the use he made of it. -Scattered throughout our old country mansions in England are hundreds of -his works, occasionally in groups as at Lord Lansdowne’s at Bowood, or -Lord Albemarle’s at Quidenham, few of which are not prized by their -owners as the chief glory of their possessions. In our public galleries -are a few comparatively--for the number of his authentic pictures -enumerated by Sir Walter Armstrong is something over a thousand--but -such as they are, they take their place unquestioned among those of the -great masters. Never was an aristocracy more fortunate in their painter. - -But youth and beauty and the immortality conferred by Sir Joshua were -not exclusive privileges of the nobility. To Lord Mount Edgcumbe and -Captain Keppel, Reynolds owed the beginning of his patronage in Court -circles, but to the latter he was also indebted for the acquaintance of -one of his fairest sitters, Kitty Fisher, the daughter of a German -staymaker, who was the most celebrated Traviata of her time. For her -biography the reader may refer to Mr. Horace Bleackley’s “Ladies Fair -and Frail.” She first sat to Reynolds in April 1759, the portrait being -commissioned by Sir Charles Bingham, who was afterwards created Lord -Lucan. At that time she was barely twenty years old, and was under the -protection of Captain Keppel. Old Lord Ligonier was also one of her many -admirers, and is said to have conspired with the King in playing off a -joke at the expense of Pitt (Lord Chatham) by introducing Kitty to him -at a review in Hyde Park as a foreign Duchess. The King fell in with -the idea, and, looking towards Kitty, asked aloud who she was. “Oh, -Sir,” said the old General, “the Duchess of N---, a foreign lady that -the Secretary should know.” “Well, well,” said the King, “introduce -him.” Lord Ligonier took Pitt up to her and said, “This is Mr. Secretary -Pitt--this is Miss Kitty Fisher.” Pitt behaved very well, and without -showing the least embarrassment, told her he was sorry he had not known -her when he was younger. “For then, Madame,” he concluded, “I should -have had the hope of succeeding in your affections; but old and infirm -as you now see me I have no other way of avoiding the force of such -beauty but by flying from it,” and then hobbled off. - -Leslie mentions having seen as many as five portraits of Kitty, which -must all have been painted about the same time. In one, a three-quarter -length, she holds a dove in her lap. Of this there are three versions, -one of which belongs to Earl Crewe, and another to Mr. Lenox of New York -(1865). - -Another portrait of Kitty is in the possession of Lord Leconfield, at -Petworth, Sussex. In this she is leaning with folded arms on a table, -facing the painter. This, and a fifth, as Cleopatra dissolving a pearl, -are better known by having been mezzotinted. Tom Taylor mentions two -more, one belonging to Lord Lansdowne, in profile with a parrot on her -forefinger, and another, which he considers the loveliest of all, -belonging to Lord Carysfort--an unfinished head in powder and a fly-cap. - -Within a couple of years (1761) Reynolds was painting Kitty’s rival, the -fascinating Nelly O’Brien, with apparently as much relish and assiduity -and even more success. In 1763 he painted the exquisite picture of her -which is here reproduced from the original at Hertford House. - -It is odd to think of Sir Joshua engaged in painting portrait after -portrait of these fascinating but frail ladies with the same care, the -same thoroughness, and the same wonderful breadth and seriousness as any -of the men and women whose names were foremost in the growing culture -and dignity of the nation. With Nelly O’Brien we know that he dined, and -the only reason to suppose that he was not on easy terms of familiarity -with any of them--if it can be called a reason--is the general dignity -of his mind and deportment, as evidenced by his relations with Dr. -Johnson, the Burney family, and all the great and learned people of his -time. The main thing, however, to be considered is that as an artist he -made no difference between the virtuous and the frail. That he was paid -for painting them need hardly be mentioned, as that has nothing whatever -to do with the question. But that he was as much in earnest with these -commissions as with any other is a proof of the perfect balance of his -mind, which in view of his sometimes over-academical dignity has rather -escaped notice. - -In 1770, by which time he was President of the Royal Academy and a -knight, he was painting a portrait of Polly Kennedy--for the details of -whose tragic history I may again refer the readers to Mr. Bleackley’s -book--for Sir Charles Bunbury. “Among the rich collection of pictures by -Reynolds at Barton,” says Leslie, “is one representing a young and -handsome woman, with aquiline features, marked by the tension of -anxiety. One hand is raised and holds a handkerchief. The dress is a -rich robe of flowered scarlet and silver brocade, worn over an inner -vest of bright colours, with a shawl of green and gold round the waist. -It looks like the portrait of an actress, but the veiled look of pain -does not belong to the stage; it is meant, I believe, to tell a tale of -real and prolonged suffering.” - -Whether or not Leslie’s conjecture is justified, it is certain that Sir -Joshua wrote to Sir Charles Bunbury about the picture in terms which -leave no doubt as to the pains he was at in executing the commission: - -_Sept. 1770_ - - DEAR SIR,--I have finished the face very much to my own - satisfaction. It has more grace and dignity than anything I have - ever done, and it is the best coloured. As to the dress, I should - be glad it might be left undetermined till I return from my - fortnight’s tour. When I return I will try different dresses. The - Eastern dresses are very rich, and have one sort of dignity; but - ’tis a mock dignity in comparison with the simplicity of the - antique. The impatience I have to finish it will shorten my stay in - the country. I shall set out in an hour’s time. - -I am with the greatest respect, -Your most obliged servant, -J. REYNOLDS. - - - -In the Exhibition of 1784 there appeared the famous _Mrs. Siddons as the -Tragic Muse_, of which Sir Joshua painted two if not three originals. -One is at Grosvenor House, having been purchased in 1822 by the first -Marquis of Westminster for 1760 guineas. (At the sale of Reynolds’s -pictures in 1796 it fetched £700.) Another is in the Dulwich Gallery, -and a third was given by Sir Joshua to Mr. Harvey, of Langley Park, -Stowe, in exchange for a picture of a boar hunt by Snyders, which he -admired very much. The Dulwich replica (which, according to Northcote, -was painted by one of Reynolds’s assistants) was sold by Reynolds in -1789 to M. Desenfans--whose collection formed the bulk of the pictures -now in the Dulwich Gallery--for £735. - -In this portrait, for once, we can find a certain reminiscence of -Reynolds’s visit to Rome, namely in the resemblance of the attitude to -that of Michel Angelo’s _Isaiah_ and the two attendant figures. It is -recorded that Mrs. Siddons herself told Mr. Phillips “that it was the -production of pure accident: Sir Joshua had begun the head and figure in -a different view, but while he was occupied in the preparation of some -colour she changed her position to look at a picture hanging on the wall -of the room. When he again looked at her and saw the action she had -assumed he requested her not to move, and thus arose the beautiful and -expressive figure we now see in the picture.” But it is easy to -understand that a - -[Illustration: THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - -1788. National Gallery, London] - -slight turn of the head and a complete change of the expression, which -would involve no alteration in the general pose, is enough to account -for this anecdote. Mrs. Siddons is also reputed to have told a Miss -Fanshawe, in whose journal the statement is preserved, that she did not -think that Sir Joshua painted the duplicate now at Grosvenor House, but -that the original was at Dulwich. This contradicts Northcote, and we may -reasonably question Miss Fanshawe’s accuracy. Mrs. Siddons very possibly -said a great deal about her picture which listeners were not concerned -to take too literally, but we should like to believe her implicitly when -she said that Sir Joshua intended to work considerably more on the face, -but that on her telling him that she thought it quite perfect he -deferred to her judgment, and left it as it was at the last sitting. - -A misunderstanding as to the engraving of this picture occasioned a -letter from Reynolds which is so characteristic of his thoroughness in -anything he undertook, as well as being an enjoyable relief in contrast -with some of the rather pedantic passages in his “Discourses” and -memoranda, that no excuse is needed for reprinting it in full. Valentine -Green, its unfortunate recipient, had asked for permission to engrave -the picture, and Reynolds had politely told him that his application -“should certainly be remembered.” Mrs. Siddons soon afterwards wrote a -note to Reynolds expressing a wish that Howard should engrave it, and -Sir Joshua very naturally consented. Green then wrote a long and -indignant letter to Reynolds, and here is the reply. - - SIR,--You have the pleasure, if it is any pleasure to you, of - reducing me to the most mortifying situation. I must either treat - your accusation with the contempt of silence (which you and your - friends may think pleading guilty) or I must submit to vindicate - myself like a criminal from a charge given in the most imperious - manner; and this charge no less than that of being a liar. - - I mentioned in conversation the last time I had the honour of - seeing you at my house that Mrs. Siddons had wrote a note to me - respecting the print. That note, as I expected to be believed, I - never dreamt of showing; and I now blush at being forced to send it - in my own vindication. This I am forced to do as you are pleased to - say in your letter that Mrs. Siddons never did write or even speak - to me in favour of any artist. - -[Illustration: MRS. BRADDYL - -1788 or 1789. Wallace Collection, London] - - But supposing Mrs. Siddons out of the question, my words (on which - you ground your demand of doing the print as a right, not as a - favour) I do not see can be interpreted as such an absolute - promise; they mean only, in the common acceptation, that you, being - the person who first applied, that circumstance should not be - forgot--that it should turn the scale in your favour, supposing an - equality in other respects. - - You say you wait the result of my determination. What sort of - determination can you expect after such a letter? You have been so - good as to give me a piece of advice--for the future to give - unequivocal answers; I shall immediately follow it, and do now, in - the most unequivocal manner, inform you that you shall not do the - print. - -With purely historical and subject pictures Sir Joshua may be said to -have increased his popularity more than his reputation. Of this class -there are comparatively few, for while Malone enumerates one hundred and -ten in “a general list of the most considerable,” no less than -thirty-five of these are primarily portraits, such as _The Graces -adorning a Term of Hymen_, _The Marlborough Family_, &c. &c. And while -we acknowledge some of his very finest achievements to be portraits and -portrait groups treated in this allegorical manner, when we turn to the -“fancy subjects” we find little of which the importance is equal to its -sentimental charm. - -Nor are the most notable exceptions, as might be expected, those for -which he received the largest commissions, namely: _The Infant -Hercules_, £1500; _The Nativity_, £1200; _Macbeth_, £1000; _Cardinal -Beaufort_, £500; _The Continence of Scipio_, £500; _A Holy Family_, -£500; _Count Hugolino_, £400; _A Gipsy Telling Fortunes_, £350; _Tuccia, -the Vestal Virgin_, £300. - -_The Infant Hercules_ was commenced in January 1786, at a time, that is -to say, when he was at the very height of his power. His niece, Miss -Palmer, writing to a cousin abroad during this month, says: “My uncle -seems more bewitched than ever with his pallet and pencils. He is -painting from morning till night, and the truth is that every picture -that he does seems better than the former. He is just going to begin a -picture for the Empress of Russia, who has sent to desire he will paint -her an historical one. The subject is left to his own choice, and at -present he is undetermined what to choose.” - -The picture is now in St. Petersburg, and we - -[Illustration: MRS. SIDDONS AS THE TRAGIC MUSE - -1789. Dulwich Gallery] - -only know it from engravings. Tom Taylor considered it “a confused -straggling picture, quite beyond the power of the painter to manage.” -But this is scarcely the criticism it deserves, and we prefer the more -adulatory notices of his contemporaries. In the Exhibition of 1788--the -last but two in which Reynolds was represented--it was hung over the -chimney-piece. “It was the first picture which presented itself on -entering the room,” says Northcote, “and had the most splendid effect of -any picture I ever saw.... It was a large and grand composition, and in -respect to beauty, colour, and expression was equal to any picture known -in the world. The middle group, which received the principal light, was -exquisite in the highest degree.” James Barry was no less enthusiastic -over it: “Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of light, the force and -vigorous effect ... it possesses all that we look for and are accustomed -to admire in Rembrandt, united to beautiful forms and to an elevation of -mind to which Rembrandt had no pretensions; the prophetical agitation of -Tiresias and Juno, enveloped with clouds, hanging over the scene like a -black pestilence, can never be too much admired, and is, indeed, truly -sublime.” - -_The Nativity_, which he painted in 1779, was purchased by the Duke of -Rutland at the then unheard of price of £1200. Unfortunately it perished -in a fire at Belvoir Castle, and we only know it from the engraving, and -from the rendering of it in glass by Jervas as the central part of the -western window of New College, Oxford. But it is doubtful whether the -loss is as great as it is deplorable, in view of the opinions expressed -by at least two not unfriendly critics. Mason tells us that “the day of -opening the Exhibition that year when the picture was in hand approached -too hastily upon Sir Joshua, who had resolved that it should then make -its public appearance. I saw him at work upon it, even the very day -before it was to be sent thither; and it grieved me to see him laying -loads of colour and varnish upon it....” Benjamin Haydon when the whole -series was exhibited in 1821, allowing that they are unequalled by any -series of allegorical designs painted by an English master, and that the -_Charity_ in particular is “very lovely,” and “may take its place -triumphantly by any Correggio on earth,” is merciless to _The Nativity_. -He condemns it for “having emptiness as breadth, plastering for surface, -and portrait individuality for general nature.” - -The _Macbeth_, which was commenced just a year after _The Infant -Hercules_, was a commission from Alderman Boydell--half of which, -by-the-by, was paid in advance--as part of the scheme for the -Shakespeare Gallery. The _Cardinal Beaufort_ was the same. Neither can -be said to have advanced Sir Joshua’s reputation or even his popularity -as much as the _Puck_, which was purchased by Boydell for inclusion in -the Shakespeare series, although not originally intended for it. - -_The Continence of Scipio_ followed the _Hercules_ to Russia. The _Holy -Family_, which was commissioned by Macklin for a Bible illustration, has -lately been restored and rehung in the National Gallery. It was for long -supposed to have suffered beyond repair, but the restorer, if he has not -done too much to it, has certainly not done too little, and it now -presents an appearance which attracts to it a greater amount of -attention from the casual visitor than from the student. - -In his minor works of this class, however, there is much more both to -charm and to satisfy. If his children have not quite the same -spontaneous gaiety of Gainsborough’s, they have many other qualities and -distinctions which Gainsborough’s lack. With the _Heads of Angels_ and -_The Age of Innocence_ Reynolds is sure of his public in any period. - -_The Strawberry Girl_, as Sir Joshua always maintained, was one of the -“half-dozen original things” which he declared no man ever exceeded in -his life’s work. He repeated the picture several times. Lord Carysfort -bought the original from the Exhibition of 1773 for £50, but at the sale -of Samuel Rogers’ collection it was bought by the Marquis of Hertford -for 2100 guineas. - - * * * * * - -To realise the full extent of England’s debt to Reynolds one must read -his “Discourses” as well as look at his pictures. It is in passages such -as the concluding paragraph of his farewell address to the Academy -students that we find the real secrets of his success. Speaking of -Michel Angelo, he says: “It will not, I hope, be thought presumptuous in -me to appear in the train, I cannot say of his imitators, but of his -admirers. I have taken another course, one more suited to my abilities -and to the taste of the times in which I live. Yet however unequal I -feel myself to that attempt, were I now to begin the world - -[Illustration: MRS. NESBIT WITH A DOVE - -Wallace Collection, London] - -again I would tread in the steps of that great master; to kiss the hem -of his garment, to catch the slightest of his perfections would be glory -and distinction enough for an ambitious man. - -“I feel a self-congratulation in knowing myself capable of such -sensations as he intended to excite. I reflect, not without vanity, that -these discourses bear testimony of my admiration of that truly divine -man, and I should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in -this Academy and from this place might be the name of--Michel Angelo.” - - - - -INDEX - - -“An Argument in behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur,” 8 - -Armstrong, Sir Walter, 39 - - -Bleackley’s, Horace, “Ladies Fair and Frail,” 39 - -British Painting in the Eighteenth Century, 2 - -Burke, Edmund, 16 - -Burney Family, 41 - - -Catts’, Jacob, Book of Emblems, 6 - -Chudleigh, Miss, commissioned to paint, 9 - - -Dilettanti Society, 35 - -Dulwich Gallery, 44 - - -Elizabeth, Queen, 36 - -“English Society of the Eighteenth Century in Contemporary Art,” 10 - - -Farington, Joseph, R.A., 20 - -Fisher, Kitty, 39 - - -Gainsborough, Thomas, 14, 37, 51 - - -Hogarth, William, 2, 11, 39 - _Portrait of Bishop of Winchester_, 29 - -Holbein’s _Duchess of Milan_, 35 - -Hoppner, 14 - -Hudson, Thomas, 8, 20 - - -Johnson, Samuel, 17, 41 - - -Keppel, Captain, invites Reynolds to accompany - him to the Mediterranean, 12 - - -Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 14 - -Lucan, Lord, 39 - - -Malone, Edmund, 16, 21, 47 - -Marlborough Group, 11 - -Mason’s “Observations on Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Method of Colouring,” 22 - -Metastasio, 25 - -Michel Angelo, 14, 15, 52 - -Morland, George, 16 - -Mudge, Rev. Zachariah, 17 - - -Northcote, James, R.A., 9, 31, 45, 49 - - -Pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds - _A Gipsy telling Fortunes_, 48 - _A Holy Family_, 48 - _Boy in a Turban_, 20 - _Captain Keppel_, 20, 22, 30, 31 - _Captain Orme_, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33 - _Cardinal Beaufort_, 48, 51 - _Charity_, 50 - _Continence of Scipio_, 48, 51 - _Conversation Piece_, 10 - _Count Hugolino_, 48 - _Heads of Angels_, 52 - _Infant Hercules_, 33, 48, 49, 51 - _Kitty Fisher_, 39 - _Ladies Sarah Lenox, Susan Strangways, and Charles James Fox_, 34 - _Ladies Waldegrave_, 35 - _Lady Caroline Russell_, 35 - _Lady Elizabeth Keppel_, 34, 35, 36 - _Lord Heathfield_, 32 - _Lord Holderness_, 22 - _Lord Ligonier_, 28, 32, 33 - _Lords Huntingdon and Stormont_, 22 - _Macbeth_, 48, 51 - _Mr. Fane and his Two Guardians_, 32 - _Mrs. Bonfoy_, 36 - _Mrs. Molesworth_, 37 - _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_, 43 - _Muscipula_, 33 - _Nelly O’Brien_, 41 - _Pitt (Lord Chatham)_, 39 - _Polly Kennedy_, 42 - _Puck_, 51 - _Sleeping Girl_, 33 - _The Age of Innocence_, 52 - _The Graces adorning a Term of Hymen_, 47 - _The Marlborough Family_, 47 - _The Nativity_, 48, 50 - _The Strawberry Girl_, 52 - _Tuccia, the Vestal Virgin_, 48 - -Plympton, Birthplace of Reynolds, 5 - - -Reynolds, Sir Joshua, birth of, 5 - drawing of Plympton School, 7 - early efforts, 5 - effects of his studies in Italy, 19 - England’s debt to, 52 - entries in his pocket-book, 28 - introduction to Captain Keppel, 11 - lecturing at the Academy, 14 - letter to Sir Charles Bunbury, 43 - letter to Valentine Green, 46 - memoranda of his efforts in Beechey’s Memoir, 24 - painting _The Infant Hercules_, 48 - portrait of himself, 9 - President of the Royal Academy, 42 - prices obtained for pictures commissioned, 48 - residence in Italy, 12 - sent to London, 8 - settled at Plymouth, 9 - studied under Thomas Hudson, 8 - success and continued improvement, 25 - three years’ tour, 19 - Leslie and Taylor’s Life of, 16 - -Reynolds, Rev. Samuel, 5 - -Richardson, Jonathan, 7, 29 - “Essay on the whole Art of Criticism as it relates to Painting,” 8 - “An argument in behalf of the Science of Connoisseur,” 8 - -Romney, George, 14, 37, 38 - - -Shakespeare, Quotation from, 32 - -Siddons, Mrs., story of her portrait by Sir Joshua, 44 - - -Taylor, Tom, 37, 41, 49 - -Thornhill, Sir James, 2 - - -Veronese, Paul, 35 - - -Walpole, Horace, 8 - -West, Benjamin, 15 - -Westmorland, Earl of, Collection, 32 - - PRINTED AT - THE BALLANTYNE PRESS - LONDON - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reynolds, by Randall Davies - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REYNOLDS *** - -***** This file should be named 50315-0.txt or 50315-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/3/1/50315/ - -Produced by Shaun Pinder, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Reynolds - -Author: Randall Davies - -Release Date: October 26, 2015 [EBook #50315] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REYNOLDS *** - - - - -Produced by Shaun Pinder, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/cover_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="385" height="500" alt="cover" -class="imgplain" /></a> -</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="border: 2px black solid;margin: auto auto 2% auto;max-width:50%; -padding:1%;"> -<tr><td><p class="c"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">List of Illustrations</a><br /> -<span class="nonvis">(In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers], -clicking directly on the image will bring up a larger version of the illustration.)</span></p> - -<p class="c"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#J">J</a>, -<a href="#K">K</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#V">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a></p> -<p class="c">(etext transcriber's note)</p></td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="cb"><big>REYNOLDS</big></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="text-align:center;"> -<tr><td align="center">UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">ROMNEY</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">Containing sixteen examples of the master’s work</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">VELASQUEZ</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">Containing sixteen examples of the master’s work</td></tr> -<tr><td> </td></tr> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">A. and C. Black, 4 Soho Square, London, W.</span></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="ill_001" id="ill_001"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 402px;"> -<a href="images/i_004_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_004_sml.jpg" width="402" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MISS NELLY O’BRIEN</p> - -<p>1763. Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<h1><img src="images/reynolds.png" -width="450" -height="93" -alt="REYNOLDS" - class="imgwidth" -/></h1> - -<p class="cb">BY<br /> -RANDALL DAVIES<br /><br /> -<br /> -CONTAINING SIXTEEN EXAMPLES IN COLOUR<br /> -OF THE MASTER’S WORK<br /> -<br /><br /> -LONDON<br /> -ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK<br /> -1913<br /> -<br /> -<small>PRINTED AT<br /> -THE BALLANTYNE PRESS<br /> -LONDON</small></p> - -<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">The</span> chief authorities on the life and work of Reynolds are James -Northcote, R.A., his most successful pupil; Henry William Beechey, and -C. R. Leslie, R.A., each of whom produced a two-volume work on the -subject. The first of these appeared in 1819, seventeen years after Sir -Joshua’s death; the next in 1835, and the last, edited by Tom Taylor, in -1865.</p> - -<p>Besides these capital works there are memoirs by Joseph Farington, R.A., -by Edmund Malone, by William Cotton, by William Mason, and by Allan -Cunningham in his “Lives of the British Painters,” all of which appeared -in the earlier half of the last century.</p> - -<p>From such an abundance of material, to say nothing of modern -publications, it is hardly possible to collect everything that is of -value within the limits of a short memoir. Only such points as are in -themselves essential, or seem significant in relation to the enormous -influence of Reynolds on his contemporaries, has it been attempted to -dwell upon.</p> - -<p class="r"> -R. D.<br /> -</p> - -<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#ill_001">1.</a></td><td valign="top">Miss Nelly O’Brien (1763)</td><td> <i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#ill_001"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td align="right"><i>Facing p.</i></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_002">2.</a></td><td valign="top">Captain Orme (1761)</td><td> <i>National Gallery, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_002">2</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_003">3.</a></td><td valign="top">The Strawberry Girl (1773)</td><td> <i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_004">4</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_004">4.</a></td><td valign="top">Lady Cockburn and Her Children (1773)</td><td> <i>National Gallery, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_006">6</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_005">5.</a></td><td valign="top">Miss Bowles (1775) </td><td><i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_008">8</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_006">6.</a></td><td valign="top">Portrait of Two Gentlemen (1778) </td><td><i>National Gallery, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_012">12</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_007">7.</a></td><td valign="top">Mrs. Carnac (1778) </td><td><i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_016">16</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_008">8.</a></td><td valign="top">Lady and Child (1780 ?) </td><td><i>National Gallery, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_020">20</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_009">9.</a></td><td valign="top">Admiral Keppel (1780) </td><td> <span class="ditto">“ </span> <span class="ditto">“ </span> <span class="ditto">“ </span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_022">22</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_010">10.</a></td><td valign="top">Mrs. Hoare and Child (1783 ?) </td><td><i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_024">24</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_011">11.</a></td><td valign="top">Mrs. Robinson (“Perdita”) (1784 ?) </td><td><span class="ditto">“ </span> <span class="ditto">“ </span> <span class="ditto">“ </span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_028">28</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_012">12.</a></td><td valign="top">Lord Heathfield (1787) </td><td><i>National Gallery, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_036">36</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_013">13.</a></td><td valign="top">The Age of Innocence (1788)</td><td> <span class="ditto">“ </span> <span class="ditto">“ </span> <span class="ditto">“ </span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_044">44</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_014">14.</a></td><td valign="top">Mrs. Braddyl (1788 or 1789) </td><td><i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_046">46</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_015">15.</a></td><td valign="top">Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse (1789) </td><td><i>Dulwich Gallery</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_048">48</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top" class="right"><a href="#ill_016">16.</a></td><td valign="top">Mrs. Nesbit with a Dove </td><td> <i>Wallace Collection, London</i></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_052">52</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a>{1}</span> </p> - -<h1>SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS</h1> - -<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">When</span> Benjamin West, a native of Pennsylvania, was elected President of -the Royal Academy, on the death of Reynolds in 1792, he found the arts -in a state of prosperity which could hardly have been predicted when -Reynolds began painting in London just half a century earlier. To -attribute this happy improvement to his illustrious predecessor alone -would have been more than was fair to West himself, and in giving to Sir -Joshua the fullest credit for his share in it, the claims of one or two -great painters and of more lesser lights than can readily be counted -must not be overlooked. But, when all have been fairly considered, it is -to Reynolds that the highest tribute is due for having helped, by -precept as well as by practice, to raise the arts from the low estate in -which he found them at the outset of his career to the proud position in -which they stood at the close of the eighteenth century. “He was the -first Englishman,” said Edmund<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a>{2}</span> Burke, “who added the praise of the -elegant arts to the other glories of his country.”</p> - -<p>Looking back, as we now may, over the whole extent of British painting -in the eighteenth century, we may say still more than this, namely that -while others practised the profession of painting Reynolds dignified it. -Painting in England had never been an art, it was little more than a -business; and there was small hope of it ever becoming anything better -when a really considerable painter like Kneller was content simply to -fill his pockets from the profits of an emporium for fashionable -portraits without caring in the least as to their quality so long as he -got his price.</p> - -<p>Kneller, however, was a German. What was wanted for English Art was an -Englishman. Sir James Thornhill, and his forceful son-in-law, William -Hogarth, were both bold and successful in attempting what they could, -each in his particular way, to root the plant in the soil. But neither -had the necessary combination of those two qualities, greatness and -dignity, which was essential for effecting so great a task as bringing -the plant to maturity. Thornhill had the dignity without the greatness, -Hogarth something of the greatness without the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a>{3}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_002" id="ill_002"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 302px;"> -<a href="images/i_017_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_017_sml.jpg" width="302" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>CAPTAIN ORME</p> - -<p>1761. National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">dignity; and it was left to Reynolds, in whom these two qualities, -abundantly evident, were blended in such nice proportions, to foster, if -not to found, one of the most vigorous schools of painting that the -world has ever seen.</p> - -<p>Dignity, it may be observed, is a dangerous quality when not -accompanied, or alloyed, by others more human. If not nicely balanced it -is only too liable to swerve to pomposity on the one hand, or empty -affability or condescension on the other. That Reynolds never swayed -perceptibly in either direction it would hardly be true to assert. His -pedantic observations on his great contemporaries, Hogarth, Gainsborough -and Wilson, and the patronising tone of some of his conversations with -the younger men, would be less forgivable were it not that one realises -how great a man he was. There are many passages in his Discourses that, -taken by themselves, are apt to exasperate; but when we consider the -work he actually accomplished, the example he afforded, and the -knowledge of his art which by his application he added to his natural -gifts, we cannot fail to see how paramount his influence has been on the -whole course of English Art in his own and succeeding times.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a>{4}</span></p> - -<p>That he was an Englishman is a fact which nowadays it may seem -unnecessary to emphasise. But how easy it is to forget that a very -considerable number of the painters whose works are included in those of -“the British School” were not born in England. That the very greatest of -all were natives—namely, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Romney, -Lawrence, Constable and Turner—is certainly gratifying to the national -pride; and it may be added that with the exception of Romney all of -these were born south of the Trent. Scotland has given us Raeburn, and -Wales Richard Wilson. But with the exception of the miniaturists, Isaac -and Peter Oliver, Nicholas Hilyard and Samuel Cooper, there was no -English artist of note before the eighteenth century; the influence of -Holbein, Vandyke, Lely, Kneller, and the rest who worked in England, was -never strong enough to awaken a response in the country of their -adoption. In later and modern times the British School has been enriched -from various quarters: by West, Copley, Whistler, Abbey, and Sargent -from across the Atlantic; by Alma Tadema from Holland and Hubert von -Herkomer from Germany, to mention only a few of the more notable names. -But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a>{5}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_003" id="ill_003"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;"> -<a href="images/i_023_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_023_sml.jpg" width="432" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>THE STRAWBERRY GIRL</p> - -<p>1773. Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">number of British artists is now so great, to say nothing of their -strength, that these accessions count for little in the great stream -whose fountainhead, to return to the point from which we start, was -Joshua Reynolds.</p> - -<p>It was at Plympton in Devonshire that Reynolds was born, on July 16, -1723. His father, the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, was headmaster of a school -in the parish. His mother’s maiden name was Theophila Potter. He was the -tenth of eleven children—no uncommon number for a country parson in -England. He is said to have been called Joshua in expectation of -possible benevolence from an uncle of that name who lived in the -neighbourhood. Perhaps this was an afterthought, for his name is entered -in the register of baptisms at Plympton as Joseph.</p> - -<p>Like many, if not most, of his fellow-geniuses he developed a taste for -the arts at a very early age. His father, with that lack of foresight -which may almost be called a characteristic of parents, is known to have -endorsed one of his sons earliest efforts, executed during school-hours, -“Done by Joshua out of pure idleness.” “His first essays,” Malone tells -us, “were copying some slight drawings made by<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a>{6}</span> two of his sisters, who -had a turn for art; he afterwards eagerly copied such prints as he met -with among his father’s books, particularly those which were given in -the translation of Plutarch’s lives published by Dryden. But his -principal fund of imitation was Jacob Catts’s Book of Emblems, which his -great-grandmother by the father’s side, a Dutchwoman, had brought with -her from Holland.”</p> - -<p>Trivial as these anecdotes of early efforts may in very many cases be -held, it is here of the very greatest interest to compare the beginnings -of Reynolds’s genius with those of his only formidable rival, -Gainsborough. For in both we so plainly see “the child the father of the -man” that, were it not that we have both of the accounts on sufficiently -trustworthy authority, we might well suppose them to have been supplied -merely to feed the popular imagination of what ought to have been. “A -beautiful wood of four miles in extent,” Allan Cunningham tells us, “was -Gainsborough’s first inspiration when but a child, in Suffolk. Scenes -are pointed out where he used to sit and fill his copy-books with -pencillings of flowers, and trees, and whatever pleased his fancy; and -it is said that these early attempts of the child bore a distinct<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a>{7}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_004" id="ill_004"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;"> -<a href="images/i_029_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_029_sml.jpg" width="397" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>LADY COCKBURN AND HER CHILDREN</p> - -<p>1773. National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">resemblance to the mature works of the man. At ten years old he had made -some progress in sketching, and at twelve he was a confirmed painter.”</p> - -<p>Reynolds’s father was not long, however, in awaking to Joshua’s talents, -for the boy was not more than about eight years old when, after perusing -a book entitled “The Jesuit’s Perspective,” he made a drawing of -Plympton School which effected a complete revolution in the state of the -parental mind. “This is what the author of the ‘Perspective’ asserts in -his preface,” cried the worthy father, “that by observing the rules laid -down in this book a man may do wonders—for this is wonderful!”</p> - -<p>After this portentous revelation Joshua was allowed to devote himself -more seriously to his favourite pursuit, and his classical studies were -sacrificed to the more congenial occupation of drawing likenesses of his -relations and friends, and to the perusal of Richardson’s treatise on -painting, which gave him his first acquaintance with the beauties of the -great Italian Masters.</p> - -<p>To the author of this work, Jonathan Richardson the elder, some slight -tribute is due in speaking of the formation and development of the -English School of Painting, so far at all events as it was influenced<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a>{8}</span> -by the study of the Italian Masters. Horace Walpole considered him one -of the best painters of a head that had appeared in this country. “There -is strength, roundness, and boldness in his colouring,” he says, “but -his men want dignity and his women grace. The good sense of the nation -is characterised in his portraits. You see he lived in an age when -neither enthusiasm nor servility were predominant.” The treatise of -Richardson in which Reynolds formed his first acquaintance with the -Italian Masters was probably the “Essay on the whole Art of Criticism as -it relates to Painting,” which was published in 1719, bound up in one -volume with “An Argument in behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur.” -This was followed, in 1722, by an account of some of the statues, -bas-reliefs, drawings, and pictures in Italy, &c., with remarks by Mr. -Richardson, Senior and Junior. The son made the journey, and from his -notes they both compiled this valuable work. The father formed a large -collection of the drawings of Old Masters, many of which were acquired -and treasured by Reynolds.</p> - -<p>When he was eighteen years old, Reynolds was sent to London to study -painting under Thomas Hudson, the most successful portrait painter at -that<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a>{9}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_005" id="ill_005"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;"> -<a href="images/i_035_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_035_sml.jpg" width="399" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MISS BOWLES</p> - -<p>1775 Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">time, with whom he remained for two years. It is said that the relations -between master and pupil were not very happy, and that the reason for -Reynolds’s abrupt return to Devonshire was the success of one of his -portraits which had been hung by accident among Hudson’s productions. -However this may be, it appears that Reynolds had not wasted his time in -London, and it was during the next two or three years, when he had -returned to his native country and settled at Plymouth, that he painted -the portrait of himself (with his palette in his left hand, shading his -eyes with his right), besides being commissioned to paint Miss -Chudleigh, afterwards the notorious Duchess of Kingston, and the -Commissioner of Plymouth Dock.</p> - -<p>Northcote speaks of Reynolds’s pictures at this early period as being -“carelessly drawn and frequently in commonplace attitudes, like those of -his old master Hudson, with one hand hid in the waistcoat, and the hat -under the arm—a very favourite attitude with portrait painters at that -time, because particularly convenient to the artist, as by it he got rid -of the tremendous difficulty of painting the hand.” Apropos of which -Northcote proceeds to relate an anecdote which he says he had heard so -often and on such authority that he apprehended it to be a truth:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a>{10}</span></p> - -<p>“One gentleman whose portrait Reynolds had painted desired to have his -hat on his head in the picture, which was quickly finished, in a -commonplace attitude, done without much study, and sent home; where, on -inspection, it was soon discovered that although this gentleman in his -portrait had one hat upon his head, yet there was another under his -arm.”</p> - -<p>A fine specimen of his accomplishments at this early period is a small -“conversation piece”—that is to say, an elaborate family group, painted -in the year 1746, which is now in the possession of Lord St. Germans, at -Port Eliot, near Plymouth. I have not seen the original, but Mr. George -Harland Peck has a small version of it in water-colour, which he was -kind enough to allow me to reproduce in the Portfolio Monograph No. 48 -(“English Society of the Eighteenth Century in Contemporary Art”). In -this composition there are no less than eleven figures, grouped in -various attitudes about the steps at a corner of the family mansion. The -central figure, standing, is Edward, afterwards created Lord Eliot. On -his left are seated his father and mother, Richard and Harriot Eliot. On -his right are standing two of his sisters, and Captain Hamilton -(ancestor of the Duke of Abercorn) with a child on his shoulders. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a>{11}</span> boy -on his right, two children seated in the foreground, and a Mrs. -Goldsworthy on the extreme right of the picture complete the -composition.</p> - -<p>As the work of a country youth of twenty-three this is certainly a very -remarkable performance. Hogarth and some of his minor contemporaries -were at this date producing “conversation pieces” of more or less merit, -but we must look to Holland or France for anything on this scale. Only -once again did Reynolds attempt anything approaching so comprehensive a -survey of family portraiture on a single canvas, namely the Marlborough -group at Blenheim, containing eight figures besides several dogs, of -which a very spirited little sketch in oils is now in the National -Gallery.</p> - -<p>But Reynolds’s greatest good fortune at Plymouth, as it afterwards -proved, was his introduction to Lord Mount Edgcumbe, who became his most -valuable patron when he returned to London, and to Captain Keppel, whose -kindness enabled him to visit Italy instead of settling down as a -provincial portrait painter, with nothing better by way of example than -the hopeless decadence that followed as a natural consequence on the -slovenly indifference of Kneller. In 1749 Keppel was appointed -Commodore<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a>{12}</span> of the Mediterranean station, and invited Reynolds to -accompany him. He willingly accepted the invitation, and remained in -Italy for over three years. How he profited by this opportunity for -studying the works of the greatest masters may be gathered from numerous -passages in his memoranda and in the “Discourses;” and to discover the -secret of his success, both in practice and in precept, we have only to -read in his own words the story of the ceaseless activity of a mind -unalterably bent on utilising every opportunity for improving his art. -Let us begin with the passage in which he confesses to have found -himself disappointed with the works of Raphael. “I did not for a moment -conceive or suppose,” he writes, “that the name of Raphael and those -admirable paintings in particular owed their reputation to the ignorance -and prejudice of mankind; on the contrary, my not relishing them as I -was conscious I ought to have done was one of the most humiliating -circumstances that ever happened to me: I found myself in the midst of -works executed upon principles with which I was unacquainted; I felt my -ignorance and stood abashed.</p> - -<p>“All the indigested notions of painting which I had brought with me from -England, where art was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a>{13}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_006" id="ill_006"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 405px;"> -<a href="images/i_043_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_043_sml.jpg" width="405" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>PORTRAIT OF TWO GENTLEMEN</p> - -<p>1778. National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">the lowest state it had ever been in (it could not, indeed, be lower), -were to be totally done away and eradicated from my mind. It was -necessary, as it is expressed on a very solemn occasion, that I should -become <i>as a little child</i>.”</p> - -<p>Ignorance, then, was the first obstacle to be overcome. It was -ignorance, as Beechey so truly points out in the introduction to his -Memoir of Reynolds, ignorance of the dignity and creative powers of art, -that made the works of his predecessors inferior to those of modern -times; and it was the light derived from intellectual sources, operating -upon a powerful and discriminating mind, that enabled him to attain a -higher degree of excellence. “We may fairly assume,” Beechey continues, -“that the productions of this admirable painter gave the first great -stimulus to British art and showed to British artists the extent of -their deficiencies and the means by which they might be remedied ... but -we may venture to affirm that if he had never enjoyed the opportunities -of comparing the results of his early education with the works of -Italian genius, he would never have attained that high superiority which -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a>{14}</span>is now so universally allowed to him ... it was the study of those -principles on which Raphael and Michel Angelo had formed their -comprehensive and elevated views of nature which first enabled Reynolds -to perceive his own deficiencies, to appreciate the value of -intellectual art, and to employ it in dignifying that of his country.”</p> - -<p>This was written, be it observed, in 1835, at a time when the art of -portraiture was fast descending from the heights to which Reynolds, -Gainsborough and Romney had raised it to depths almost as low as those -in which it had sunk a century earlier. Hoppner and Lawrence, the last -of the great men, had left no one to carry on the tradition, and had -contributed in some measure to its extinction by faults of manner which -were fatally easy to imitate. Shallow and slipshod imitation soon became -the fashionable cloak to cover the bare bones of the old -skeleton—ignorance—and the early Victorian age could produce nothing -in the way of portraiture which is now looked at without contempt.</p> - -<p>As to the methods by which this ignorance was to be overcome, it is to -be observed that when lecturing at the Academy in his later days Sir -Joshua was constantly urging upon the students the necessity for -generalisation. “The man of true genius,” he says,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a>{15}</span> “instead of spending -all his hours, as many artists do while they are at Rome, in measuring -statues and copying pictures, soon begins to think for himself, and -endeavours to do something like what he sees. I consider general copying -a delusive kind of industry.” And again, “Instead of copying the touches -of those great masters, copy only their conceptions; instead of treading -in their footsteps, endeavour only to keep the same road; labour to -invent on their general principles and way of thinking; possess yourself -with their spirit; consider with yourself how a Michel Angelo or a -Raphael would have treated this subject, and work yourself into a belief -that your picture is to be seen and criticised by them when completed; -even an attempt of this kind will rouse your powers.”</p> - -<p>That this determination to look at his art in the broadest possible -spirit was the dominant factor in his success is continually evident at -every point in his career. The breadth and sincerity of this view are so -faithfully reflected in every single work he achieved that it seems -rather to character than to genius that he owes his high place among -painters. That it was not so may be readily admitted when we remember -other painters—for instance, Benjamin West and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a>{16}</span> George Morland—who -were gifted with one or other of those two qualities only; but the -combination of the two carried Reynolds as high as Gainsborough, and far -higher than any one else. “One who has a genius,” he writes (as early as -1759), “will comprehend in his idea the whole of his work at once; -whilst he who is deficient in genius amuses himself in trifling parts of -small consideration, attends with scrupulous exactness to the minuter -matters only, which he finishes to a nicety, whilst the whole together -has a very ill effect.”</p> - -<p>This striving after generalisation, seeing things whole, is noticed by -Edmund Burke as almost the chief characteristic of Reynolds’s genius. -Malone requested Burke to “throw his thoughts on paper relative to Sir -Joshua,” at the time when he was preparing his Life, and Burke complied -with the request in the following short summary, which is printed in -Leslie and Taylor’s Life of Sir Joshua.</p> - -<p>“He was a great generaliser, and was fond of reducing everything to one -system; more, perhaps, than the variety of principles which operate in -the human mind, and in every human work, will properly endure. But this -disposition to abstractions, generalisations and classifications is the -great glory<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a>{17}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_007" id="ill_007"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 310px;"> -<a href="images/i_051_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_051_sml.jpg" width="310" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MRS. CARNAC</p> - -<p>1778. Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">of the human mind; that, indeed, which most distinguishes man from other -animals, and is the source of everything that can be called science.</p> - -<p>“I believe his early acquaintance with Mr. Mudge, of Exeter [the Rev. -Zachariah Mudge, a dissenting minister], a very learned and thinking -man, much inclined to philosophise in the spirit of the Platonists, -disposed him to this habit. He certainly by that means liberalised in a -high degree the theory of his own art; and if he had been more -methodically instituted in the early part of his life, and had possessed -more leisure for study and reflection, he would in my opinion have -pursued this method with great success.</p> - -<p>“He had a strong turn for humour, and well saw the weak sides of things. -He enjoyed every circumstance of his good fortune and had no affectation -on that subject. And I do not know a fault or weakness of his that he -did not convert into something that bordered on a virtue, instead of -pushing it to the confines of a vice. E. B.”</p> - -<p>“Genius,” Johnson wrote, “is chiefly exerted in historical pictures, and -the art of the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of -the subject. But it is in painting as in life: what is greatest is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a>{18}</span> -always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to -goddesses, to empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now -employed in diffusing friendship, in renewing tenderness, in quickening -the affections of the absent and continuing the presence of the dead. -Every man is always present to himself, and has therefore little need of -his own resemblance; nor can he desire it but for the sake of those whom -he loves and by whom he hopes to be remembered. This use of the art is a -natural and reasonable consequence of affection, and though, like all -other human actions, it is often complicated with pride, yet even such -pride is more laudable than that by which palaces are covered with -pictures that, however excellent, neither imply the owners virtue nor -excite it.”</p> - -<p>This was written to combat the assertion that Sir Joshua, in confining -himself to portraiture, was hardly practising what he was always -preaching. But preaching was very much wanted at this stage of the -development of art in England, though not exactly the preaching of the -Established Church. The Dean of Gloucester had said on the occasion of a -meeting of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, that he -thought a pinmaker was a more useful and valuable<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a>{19}</span> member of society -than Raphael. Reynolds was of the contrary opinion, which he committed -to paper:</p> - -<p>“This is an observation of a very narrow mind; a mind that is confined -to the mere object of commerce; that sees with a microscopic eye but a -part of the great machine of the economy of life, and thinks that small -part which he sees to be the whole.</p> - -<p>“Commerce is the means, not the end, of happiness or pleasure. The end -is a rational enjoyment of life by means of arts and sciences. It is -therefore the highest degree of folly to set the means in a higher rank -of esteem than the accomplished end. It is as much as to say that the -brickmaker is a more useful member of society than the architect who -employs him. The usefulness of the brickmaker is acknowledged, but the -rank of him and of the architect are very different.</p> - -<p>“No man deserves better of mankind than he who has the art of opening -sources of intellectual pleasure and instruction by means of the -senses.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>On his return from his three years’ tour in 1752 Reynolds lost no time -in setting up his easel as a professional painter in London. The effects -of his studies in Italy were too obvious to escape notice, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a>{20}</span> as the -arts at that time were scarcely, if at all, deserving of kindlier -mention than Reynolds has given them in the passage above quoted, it is -hardly surprising that he was subject to some adverse criticism. Hudson, -his former master, after looking at a <i>Boy in a Turban</i>—a portrait of -his pupil Marchi, now one of the treasured possessions of the Royal -Academy—which had just been painted, told him that he didn’t paint as -well as when he left England. A pupil of Kneller objected that he didn’t -paint in the least like Sir Godfrey. But his success was now not far -off, and with the full-length portrait of Keppel, which was painted in -1753, he sprang into fame.</p> - -<p>“With this picture,” says Farington, in his Memoir of Reynolds published -in 1819, “he took great pains; for it was observed at the time that -after several sittings he defaced his work and began again. But his -labour was not lost; that excellent production was so much admired that -it completely established the reputation of the artist. Its dignity and -spirit, its beauty of colour and fine general effect occasioned equal -surprise and pleasure. The public, hitherto accustomed to see only the -formal, tame representations which reduced all persons to the same -standard of unmeaning insipidity, were captivated with this<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a>{21}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_008" id="ill_008"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 426px;"> -<a href="images/i_059_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_059_sml.jpg" width="426" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>LADY AND CHILD</p> - -<p>1780? National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">display of animated character, and the report of its attraction was soon -widely circulated.”</p> - -<p>Malone is not less enthusiastic. “The whole interval between the time of -Charles I and the conclusion of the reign of George II,” he observes, -“though distinguished by the performances of Lely, Riley, and Kneller, -seemed to be annihilated, and the only question was whether the new -painter or Vandyck were the more excellent. For several years before the -period we are now speaking of the painters of portraits contented -themselves with exhibiting as correct a resemblance as they could, but -seemed not to have thought, or had not the power, of enlivening the -canvas by giving a kind of historic air to their pictures. Mr. Reynolds -... instead of confining himself to mere likeness (in which, however, he -was eminently happy) dived, as it were, into the minds and habits and -manners of those who sat to him; and accordingly the majority of his -portraits are so appropriate and characteristic that the many -illustrious persons whom he has delineated will be almost as well known -to posterity as if they had seen and conversed with them.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>A slight gap in the story of Reynolds’s earlier days<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a>{22}</span> is usefully filled -by an essay entitled, “Observations on Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Method of -Colouring,” and published by William Cotton in 1859. It had been written -many years before by William Mason, the author of “Odes on Memory” and -other poetical works. Mason was, besides, an amateur painter, and was -always admitted to Sir Joshua’s painting room unless he had a sitter for -a portrait. When not so occupied, he tells us, Reynolds was always -retouching an old master, or had some beggar or poor child sitting to -him, because he always chose to have nature before his eyes. Mason -mentions the effect of the portrait of Keppel in attracting others to -Reynolds, among the first being the young Lords Huntingdon and Stormont, -who had just returned from the grand tour. As though determined to -follow up the success of his <i>Captain Keppel</i> with as bold an effort in -another direction, he challenged comparison with Vandyck by painting the -two young lords at full length on the same canvas.</p> - -<p>“It was upon seeing this picture,” Mason continues, “that Lord -Holderness was induced to sit for his portrait (which he was afterwards -pleased to make me a present of), on which occasion he employed me to go -to the painter and fix with him his Lordship’s time of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a>{23}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_009" id="ill_009"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 394px;"> -<a href="images/i_065_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_065_sml.jpg" width="394" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>ADMIRAL KEPPEL</p> - -<p>1780. National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">sitting. Here our acquaintance commenced; and as he permitted me to -attend every sitting, I shall here set down the observations I made upon -his manner of painting at this early time, which to the best of my -remembrance was in the year 1754.</p> - -<p>“On his light-coloured canvas he had already laid a ground of white, -where he meant to place the head, and which was still wet. He had -nothing upon his palette but flake-white, lake, and black; and without -making any previous sketch or outline, he began with much celerity to -scumble these pigments together, till he had produced, in less than an -hour, a likeness sufficiently intelligible yet withal, as might be -expected, cold and pallid to the last degree. At the second sitting he -added, I believe, to the three other colours a little Naples yellow; but -I do not remember that he used any vermilion, neither then nor at the -third trial ... lake alone might produce the carnation required. However -this be, the portrait turned out a striking likeness, and the attitude, -so far as a three-quarters canvas would admit, perfectly natural and -peculiar to his person, which at all times bespoke a fashioned -gentleman. His drapery was crimson velvet, copied from a coat he then -wore, and apparently not only painted but glazed with lake,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a>{24}</span> which has -stood at this hour perfectly well; though the face, which as well as the -whole picture was highly varnished before he sent it home, very soon -faded; and soon after the forehead particularly cracked, almost to -peeling off, which it would have done long since had not his pupil -Doughty repaired it.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Among Sir Joshua’s memoranda is the following very candid account of his -efforts to improve himself in his art, which is printed in Beechey’s -Memoir:</p> - -<p>“Not having had the advantage of an early academical education, I never -had that facility of drawing the naked figure which an artist ought to -have. It appeared to me too late, when I went to Italy and began to feel -my own deficiencies, to endeavour to acquire that readiness of invention -which I observed others to possess. I consoled myself, however, by -remarking that these ready inventors are extremely apt to acquiesce in -imperfections, and that if I had not their facility I should for this -very reason be more likely to avoid the defect which too often -accompanies it—a trite and commonplace mode of invention.</p> - -<p>“How difficult it is for the artist who possesses this facility to guard -against carelessness and commonplace invention is well known, and in a -kindred art<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a>{25}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_010" id="ill_010"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 406px;"> -<a href="images/i_071_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_071_sml.jpg" width="406" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MRS. HOARE AND CHILD</p> - -<p>1783? Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p>Metastasio is an eminent instance, who always complained of the great -difficulty he found in attaining correctness in consequence of his -having been in his youth an <i>improvisatore</i>. Having this defect -constantly in my mind I never was contented with commonplace attitudes -or inventions of any kind. I considered myself as playing a great game, -and instead of beginning to save money I laid it out faster than I got -it in purchasing the best examples of art that could be procured; for I -even borrowed money for this purpose. The possession of pictures by -Titian, Vandyck, Rembrandt, &c., I considered as the best kind of -wealth.</p> - -<p>“By carefully studying the works of great masters this advantage is -obtained—we find that certain niceties of expression are capable of -being executed which otherwise we might suppose beyond the reach of art. -This gives us confidence in ourselves; and we are thus invited to -endeavour at not only the same happiness of execution, but also at other -congenial excellencies. Study, indeed, consists in learning to see -nature, and may be called the art of using other men’s minds. By this -kind of contemplation and exercise we are taught to think in their way, -and sometimes to attain their excellence. Thus, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a>{26}</span> instance, if I had -never seen any of the works of Correggio I should never, perhaps, have -remarked in nature the expression that I find in one of his pictures; or -if I had remarked it I might have thought it too difficult or perhaps -impossible to be executed.</p> - -<p>“My success and continued improvement in my art, if I may be allowed -that expression, may be ascribed in a good measure to a principle which -I will boldly recommend to imitation: I mean the principle of honesty; -which in this, as in all other instances, is, according to the vulgar -proverb, certainly the best policy.—I always endeavoured to do my best. -Great or vulgar, good subjects or bad, all had nature, by the exact -representation of which, or even by the endeavour to give such a -representation, the painter cannot but improve in his art.</p> - -<p>“My principal labour was employed on the whole together, and I was never -weary of changing and trying different modes and different effects. I -had always some scheme in my mind, and a perpetual desire to advance. By -constantly endeavouring to do my best I acquired a power of doing that -with spontaneous facility which was at first the whole effort of my -mind; and my reward was threefold: the satisfaction resulting from -acting on this just<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a>{27}</span> principle, improvement in my art, and the pleasure -derived from a constant pursuit after excellence.</p> - -<p>“I was always willing to believe that my uncertainty of proceeding in my -works—that is, my never being sure of my hand, and my frequent -alterations—arose from a refined taste which could not acquiesce in -anything short of a high degree of excellence. I had not an opportunity -of being early initiated in the principles of colouring; no man, indeed, -could teach me. If I have never been settled with respect to colouring, -let it at the same time be remembered that my unsteadiness in this -respect proceeded from an inordinate desire to possess every kind of -excellence that I saw in the works of others, without considering that -there is in colouring, as in style, excellencies which are incompatible -with each other; however, this pursuit, or, indeed, any similar pursuit, -prevents the artist from being tired of his art.</p> - -<p>“We all know how often those masters who sought after colouring changed -their manner, while others, merely from not seeing various modes, -acquiesced all their lives in that with which they set out. On the -contrary, I tried every effect of colour; and leaving out every colour -in its turn, showed every colour that I could do without it. As I -alternately<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a>{28}</span> left out every colour, I tried every new colour, and often, -it is well known, failed. The former practice, I am aware, may be -compared by those whose chief object is ridicule to that of the poet -mentioned in the <i>Spectator</i> who, in a poem of twenty-four books, -contrived in each book to leave out a letter. But I was influenced by no -such idle or foolish affectation. My fickleness in the mode of colour -arose from an eager desire to attain the highest excellence. This is the -only merit I assume to myself from my conduct in that respect.”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>From the entries in his pocket-book for 1755 it appears that no fewer -than 120 people sat to Reynolds in that year, though he had only been -established in London since the end of 1752. The pocket-book for 1756 is -lost. In 1758, his busiest year of all, the number rose to 150.</p> - -<p>Two large military portraits exhibited in 1761 confirmed the reputation -of the new painter, namely those of Captain Orme and Lord Ligonier. With -these the public is more familiar than that of Keppel, as both are in -the National Gallery, and they serve as well as any others to illustrate -the extraordinary advance which their production marked in the history<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a>{29}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_011" id="ill_011"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"> -<a href="images/i_079_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_079_sml.jpg" width="411" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MRS. ROBINSON (“PERDITA”)</p> - -<p>1784? Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">of English portraiture, and indeed of painting in general. The passages -previously quoted from Farington and Malone can hardly be regarded as -over-florid when we try to imagine the effect of the sudden appearance -of a portrait like that of Captain Orme in a country which was -absolutely barren of fine painting. It is true that Hogarth had lately -wrought several wonderfully vigorous achievements in unconventional -portraiture, one or two of which—notably the <i>Bishop of -Winchester</i>—are to be seen in an adjoining room at the National -Gallery. But Hogarth was never a portrait painter, and admirable as his -peculiar qualities were, to compare him with Reynolds is very much like -comparing a blacksmith with a sculptor. Hogarth’s brush was like a -sledge-hammer; every stroke went home, and his extraordinarily vivid -presentments of Lord Boyne, Simon Lord Lovat, Captain Coram, and others -seem rather to have been forged than painted—I do not, of course, mean -counterfeited! Of other portraiture there was really none, beyond the -skill of facial resemblance with which Walpole credits Jonathan -Richardson, and the lackadaisical reminiscences of what had been worst -in Kneller.</p> - -<p>Placed among several of the best works of<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a>{30}</span> Reynolds’s maturer period, as -it is to-day, the <i>Captain Orme</i> can hardly fail to arrest the attention -alike of student or casual visitor. Whatever technical deficiencies the -learned may discover in it—deficiencies which, as we have seen, he was -never too ignorant to confess or too indolent to let be—the whole -picture is stamped with the character of greatness.</p> - -<p>To us there is no strangeness, no surprise, in the originality of the -composition, as there was to its first beholders. To us the easy pose of -the figure standing beside the horse is only a source of enjoyment, and -we feel as it were that there could have been no other possible way of -painting the portrait with any success; that that was the one attitude -in which Captain Orme appeared to any advantage. We recognise in it the -work of a great master without any question as to its place in the -history of painting.</p> - -<p>But consider what the effect of it must have been on the painters and -their patrons at the time of its appearance. Northcote describes the -picture as “an effort in composition so new to his barren competitors in -art as must have struck them with dismay; for they dared not venture on -such perilous flights of invention.” That there is little reason to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a>{31}</span> -doubt that Northcote was right in suggesting dismay and timidity as the -prevailing emotions of the other painters may be allowed, if but for one -moment we can blot out from our minds the existence of all English -painting since that time. We can remember the effect produced upon the -Academicians by the appearance of Whistler; but in those recent days -opinion had been educated to recognise excellencies in painting, and it -was only the novelty and disregard of existing convention that disturbed -them. In 1750 the painters had had no such education, and they felt the -double shock of the revelation of superlative excellence combined with -startling novelty.</p> - -<p>Not that Reynolds must be regarded in any sense as a revolutionary. It -would be truer to say that he was a revivalist. We may smile at -Whistler’s naïve “Why drag in Velasquez?” but in the “originality” of -Reynolds’s <i>Commodore Keppel</i> and <i>Captain Orme</i> we see no more than the -fruits of a great mind fertilised by the continuous study of Vandyck and -the Italian masters. In a gallery of the great portraits of the world, -these achievements of Reynolds would fall as naturally into line with -those of the older masters as the regular<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a>{32}</span> productions of the -fashionable portrait painters of to-day assimilate with the thousands of -pictures amongst which they are hung upon the walls of the Royal -Academy. One might have said of them as Shakespeare said of the works of -Time:</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“<i>Thy pyramids built up with newer might</i><br /></span> -<span class="i1"><i>To me are nothing novel, nothing strange,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i1"><i>They are but dressings of a former sight.</i>”<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p>With all, or even a few, of the splendid series of male portraits, of -which these two of Captain Orme and Lord Ligonier may be taken as the -beginning, it is impossible to deal in so short a memoir. Among the most -magnificent is that of Mr. Fane and his two guardians, from the Earl of -Westmorland’s collection, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New -York. This must have been painted at the best period of Reynolds’s -career, and shows him at the very top of his achievement in the painting -of portraits of men. Not far below it, however, is the <i>Lord -Heathfield</i>, which is here reproduced. This was one of the last -portraits he painted, and yet shows little signs of diminishing vigour -in the artist’s mind or hand.</p> - -<p>The <i>Lord Heathfield</i> was exhibited in 1788, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a>{33}</span> sixteen other -portraits, in addition to the <i>Infant Hercules</i>, <i>Muscipula</i>, and the -<i>Sleeping Girl</i>. It is now in the National Gallery, and though it has -suffered somewhat from injury and retouching, it forms a noble close to -the chapter opened, so to speak, nearly thirty years back by the two -other warriors, Orme and Ligonier, with whom we started. Constable, -taking it as an example of what a picture may express besides the actual -likeness of the sitter, aptly describes it as “almost a history of the -defence of Gibraltar. The distant sea with a glimpse of the opposite -coast expresses the locality, and the cannon, pointed downward, the -height of the rock on which the hero stands, with the chain of the -massive key of the fortress twice passed round his hand as to secure it -in his grasp. He seems to say, ‘I have you, and will keep you!’ ”</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>With portraits of women Reynolds was even more successful in his early -days. Besides the exhibition of pictures in the April of the year 1761, -when the <i>Captain Orme</i> and the <i>Lord Ligonier</i> opened the public eyes -in wonder at the achievements of the new painter, the marriage and -coronation of King George III in September contributed, incidentally, to -advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a>{34}</span> the reputation of Reynolds in the portraiture of women. Of the -ten noble and lovely bridesmaids who bore the train of the Queen, three -of the most beautiful were painted by him in this year, namely, the -Ladies Caroline Russell, Elizabeth Keppel, and Sarah Lenox. The first -portrait, which is now at Woburn Abbey, is a half-length; Lady Caroline -is seated, in a garden, with a Blenheim spaniel in her lap, presumably -the gift of the Duke of Marlborough, whom she married the next year. The -other two, at Quidenham and Holland House, are better known from having -been mezzotinted. The former is a forecast, as it were, of the famous -trio at the National Gallery, Lady Elizabeth being represented at full -length, decorating a statue of Hymen. The composition is enriched by the -contrast of a negress, who holds up the wreaths of flowers to her -mistress.</p> - -<p>Lady Sarah Lenox shares the honours of her picture with Lady Susan -Strangways and Charles James Fox. She leans from a low window at Holland -House to take a dove from Lady Susan, while Fox—then quite a -youth—with a manuscript in his hand, urges them to come to a rehearsal -of some private theatricals. Of groups such as these it is much to be -regretted that Reynolds did not paint<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a>{35}</span> more. With his comprehensive -knowledge of the Old Masters he was better qualified than any English -painter to attempt them, and his youthful achievement of the Eliot -group, already mentioned, showed his natural capabilities before he had -been to Italy at all. It was possibly because Hogarth, and his minor -imitators, had made the “conversation piece” their own, and that when he -did paint a group, as the <i>Ladies Waldegrave</i>, or the three ladies -decorating a <i>Term of Hymen</i>, he saw no way but “the grand style,” and -sought to immortalise rather than to portray so much beauty collected -together. With men he was occasionally more prosaic, as is witnessed by -the two groups of the Dilettanti Society, now in the basement of the -Grafton Gallery; though we know that in this instance he took Paul -Veronese as his guide.</p> - -<p>Let us now turn to the other two—Lady Elizabeth Keppel and Lady -Caroline Russell—as the prototypes of his more usual portraits of -ladies, the whole and the half-length.</p> - -<p>A complete full-length picture of a woman offers more difficulties of -pose, proportion, light, colour, or any other particular, than are -overcome by any but a few of the greatest painters. Holbein has given us -the Duchess of Milan, and no more; and of all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a>{36}</span> full-length portraits -of Elizabeth and the ladies of her time, how many are there that have -any but historical or personal interest? In England Vandyck alone -succeeded in painting a picture of a complete woman, and when he was -gone the chance of immortality for women—I mean in pictures—was gone -too. I can recall no single whole-length portrait of Lely or Kneller -that is anything more than a conventional representation of the person.</p> - -<p>With the <i>Lady Elizabeth Keppel</i> we are back to Vandyck again. With a -painter who could achieve a portrait like this, woman once again had the -chance of pictorial salvation, and like the sensible creature that she -is, jumped at it without any hesitation. To sit for her portrait was now -no longer a duty to her family, a bore, or at best a mere vanity, but a -thrill.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Bonfoy, one of the daughters of Lord Eliot in the family group of -1746, was among the first to experience it, sitting to Reynolds again -for a half-length in 1754. This portrait is still at Port Eliot, and is -described by Leslie as “one of his most beautiful female portraits, and -in perfect preservation. The lady is painted as a half-length in a green -dress, with one hand on her hip, and the head turned, with that -inimitable ease and<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a>{37}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_012" id="ill_012"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<a href="images/i_091_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_091_sml.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>LORD HEATHFIELD</p> - -<p>1787. National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">high-bred grace of which Reynolds was a master beyond all the painters -who ever painted women.” This is indeed high praise for what was -probably the first female portrait he painted after his return from -Italy. But there is no doubt that Reynolds had now acquired enough -mastery over his “ignorance” to be capable of producing work which would -be comparable with anything he was to do in the future. Tom Taylor notes -another half-length painted in the spring of the following year in -hardly less glowing terms; it is of Mrs. Molesworth—“a young and lovely -brunette, in one of the quaint every-day dresses of the time, closely -copied, without the least attempt at ‘idealising’ or ‘generalising,’ -with flowers in her hand, a little cap on her head, a prim apron, and a -lawn kerchief closely covering her shoulders. It is one of the most -attractive of his female portraits, and especially valuable for its -literalness.”</p> - -<p>That his very earliest works should receive, and indeed deserve, such -commendation requires emphasising in order to restore to him a good deal -of the credit for the revival of portraiture in England which nowadays -is given to his only successful rivals, Gainsborough and Romney. The -fascination<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a>{38}</span> that Gainsborough’s natural genius throws over his -admirers—and Reynolds himself was not entirely unaffected by it—is apt -to blind them to the more solid merit of the other, and the fact that -Reynolds had achieved so much before Gainsborough had really started -painting portraits is apt to be overlooked. In 1751, when Sir Joshua had -fairly established his reputation, Gainsborough had only just left his -native place and settled in Bath, and it was not until 1774—twenty-one -years after Reynolds—that he came to London and seriously competed with -him for the public favour. Romney, again, although he was working in -London as early as 1761, was never a serious competitor till his return -from a two years’ tour in Italy in 1775. For twenty years at least then -Reynolds had practically as complete a monopoly of portraiture among the -nobility as Kneller had had at the opening of the century, and we have -only to think once in forming our estimate of the use he made of it. -Scattered throughout our old country mansions in England are hundreds of -his works, occasionally in groups as at Lord Lansdowne’s at Bowood, or -Lord Albemarle’s at Quidenham, few of which are not prized by their -owners as the chief glory of their possessions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a>{39}</span> In our public galleries -are a few comparatively—for the number of his authentic pictures -enumerated by Sir Walter Armstrong is something over a thousand—but -such as they are, they take their place unquestioned among those of the -great masters. Never was an aristocracy more fortunate in their painter.</p> - -<p>But youth and beauty and the immortality conferred by Sir Joshua were -not exclusive privileges of the nobility. To Lord Mount Edgcumbe and -Captain Keppel, Reynolds owed the beginning of his patronage in Court -circles, but to the latter he was also indebted for the acquaintance of -one of his fairest sitters, Kitty Fisher, the daughter of a German -staymaker, who was the most celebrated Traviata of her time. For her -biography the reader may refer to Mr. Horace Bleackley’s “Ladies Fair -and Frail.” She first sat to Reynolds in April 1759, the portrait being -commissioned by Sir Charles Bingham, who was afterwards created Lord -Lucan. At that time she was barely twenty years old, and was under the -protection of Captain Keppel. Old Lord Ligonier was also one of her many -admirers, and is said to have conspired with the King in playing off a -joke at the expense of Pitt (Lord Chatham) by introducing Kitty to him -at a review in Hyde<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a>{40}</span> Park as a foreign Duchess. The King fell in with -the idea, and, looking towards Kitty, asked aloud who she was. “Oh, -Sir,” said the old General, “the Duchess of N—-, a foreign lady that -the Secretary should know.” “Well, well,” said the King, “introduce -him.” Lord Ligonier took Pitt up to her and said, “This is Mr. Secretary -Pitt—this is Miss Kitty Fisher.” Pitt behaved very well, and without -showing the least embarrassment, told her he was sorry he had not known -her when he was younger. “For then, Madame,” he concluded, “I should -have had the hope of succeeding in your affections; but old and infirm -as you now see me I have no other way of avoiding the force of such -beauty but by flying from it,” and then hobbled off.</p> - -<p>Leslie mentions having seen as many as five portraits of Kitty, which -must all have been painted about the same time. In one, a three-quarter -length, she holds a dove in her lap. Of this there are three versions, -one of which belongs to Earl Crewe, and another to Mr. Lenox of New York -(1865).</p> - -<p>Another portrait of Kitty is in the possession of Lord Leconfield, at -Petworth, Sussex. In this she is leaning with folded arms on a table, -facing the painter. This, and a fifth, as Cleopatra dissolving a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a>{41}</span> pearl, -are better known by having been mezzotinted. Tom Taylor mentions two -more, one belonging to Lord Lansdowne, in profile with a parrot on her -forefinger, and another, which he considers the loveliest of all, -belonging to Lord Carysfort—an unfinished head in powder and a fly-cap.</p> - -<p>Within a couple of years (1761) Reynolds was painting Kitty’s rival, the -fascinating Nelly O’Brien, with apparently as much relish and assiduity -and even more success. In 1763 he painted the exquisite picture of her -which is here reproduced from the original at Hertford House.</p> - -<p>It is odd to think of Sir Joshua engaged in painting portrait after -portrait of these fascinating but frail ladies with the same care, the -same thoroughness, and the same wonderful breadth and seriousness as any -of the men and women whose names were foremost in the growing culture -and dignity of the nation. With Nelly O’Brien we know that he dined, and -the only reason to suppose that he was not on easy terms of familiarity -with any of them—if it can be called a reason—is the general dignity -of his mind and deportment, as evidenced by his relations with Dr. -Johnson, the Burney family, and all the great and learned people of his -time. The main thing, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a>{42}</span> to be considered is that as an artist he -made no difference between the virtuous and the frail. That he was paid -for painting them need hardly be mentioned, as that has nothing whatever -to do with the question. But that he was as much in earnest with these -commissions as with any other is a proof of the perfect balance of his -mind, which in view of his sometimes over-academical dignity has rather -escaped notice.</p> - -<p>In 1770, by which time he was President of the Royal Academy and a -knight, he was painting a portrait of Polly Kennedy—for the details of -whose tragic history I may again refer the readers to Mr. Bleackley’s -book—for Sir Charles Bunbury. “Among the rich collection of pictures by -Reynolds at Barton,” says Leslie, “is one representing a young and -handsome woman, with aquiline features, marked by the tension of -anxiety. One hand is raised and holds a handkerchief. The dress is a -rich robe of flowered scarlet and silver brocade, worn over an inner -vest of bright colours, with a shawl of green and gold round the waist. -It looks like the portrait of an actress, but the veiled look of pain -does not belong to the stage; it is meant, I believe, to tell a tale of -real and prolonged suffering.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a>{43}</span></p> - -<p>Whether or not Leslie’s conjecture is justified, it is certain that Sir -Joshua wrote to Sir Charles Bunbury about the picture in terms which -leave no doubt as to the pains he was at in executing the commission:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="r"> -<i>Sept. 1770</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—I have finished the face very much to my own -satisfaction. It has more grace and dignity than anything I have -ever done, and it is the best coloured. As to the dress, I should -be glad it might be left undetermined till I return from my -fortnight’s tour. When I return I will try different dresses. The -Eastern dresses are very rich, and have one sort of dignity; but -’tis a mock dignity in comparison with the simplicity of the -antique. The impatience I have to finish it will shorten my stay in -the country. I shall set out in an hour’s time.</p> - -<p class="r"> -I am with the greatest respect, <br /> -Your most obliged servant, <br /> -<span class="smcap">J. Reynolds</span>.<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>In the Exhibition of 1784 there appeared the famous <i>Mrs. Siddons as the -Tragic Muse</i>, of which Sir Joshua painted two if not three originals. -One is at Grosvenor House, having been purchased in<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a>{44}</span> 1822 by the first -Marquis of Westminster for 1760 guineas. (At the sale of Reynolds’s -pictures in 1796 it fetched £700.) Another is in the Dulwich Gallery, -and a third was given by Sir Joshua to Mr. Harvey, of Langley Park, -Stowe, in exchange for a picture of a boar hunt by Snyders, which he -admired very much. The Dulwich replica (which, according to Northcote, -was painted by one of Reynolds’s assistants) was sold by Reynolds in -1789 to M. Desenfans—whose collection formed the bulk of the pictures -now in the Dulwich Gallery—for £735.</p> - -<p>In this portrait, for once, we can find a certain reminiscence of -Reynolds’s visit to Rome, namely in the resemblance of the attitude to -that of Michel Angelo’s <i>Isaiah</i> and the two attendant figures. It is -recorded that Mrs. Siddons herself told Mr. Phillips “that it was the -production of pure accident: Sir Joshua had begun the head and figure in -a different view, but while he was occupied in the preparation of some -colour she changed her position to look at a picture hanging on the wall -of the room. When he again looked at her and saw the action she had -assumed he requested her not to move, and thus arose the beautiful and -expressive figure we now see in the picture.” But it is easy to -understand that a<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a>{45}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_013" id="ill_013"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;"> -<a href="images/i_103_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_103_sml.jpg" width="417" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>THE AGE OF INNOCENCE</p> - -<p>1788. National Gallery, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">slight turn of the head and a complete change of the expression, which -would involve no alteration in the general pose, is enough to account -for this anecdote. Mrs. Siddons is also reputed to have told a Miss -Fanshawe, in whose journal the statement is preserved, that she did not -think that Sir Joshua painted the duplicate now at Grosvenor House, but -that the original was at Dulwich. This contradicts Northcote, and we may -reasonably question Miss Fanshawe’s accuracy. Mrs. Siddons very possibly -said a great deal about her picture which listeners were not concerned -to take too literally, but we should like to believe her implicitly when -she said that Sir Joshua intended to work considerably more on the face, -but that on her telling him that she thought it quite perfect he -deferred to her judgment, and left it as it was at the last sitting.</p> - -<p>A misunderstanding as to the engraving of this picture occasioned a -letter from Reynolds which is so characteristic of his thoroughness in -anything he undertook, as well as being an enjoyable relief in contrast -with some of the rather pedantic passages in his “Discourses” and -memoranda, that no excuse is needed for reprinting it in full. Valentine -Green, its unfortunate recipient, had asked for permission to<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a>{46}</span> engrave -the picture, and Reynolds had politely told him that his application -“should certainly be remembered.” Mrs. Siddons soon afterwards wrote a -note to Reynolds expressing a wish that Howard should engrave it, and -Sir Joshua very naturally consented. Green then wrote a long and -indignant letter to Reynolds, and here is the reply.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—You have the pleasure, if it is any pleasure to you, of -reducing me to the most mortifying situation. I must either treat -your accusation with the contempt of silence (which you and your -friends may think pleading guilty) or I must submit to vindicate -myself like a criminal from a charge given in the most imperious -manner; and this charge no less than that of being a liar.</p> - -<p>I mentioned in conversation the last time I had the honour of -seeing you at my house that Mrs. Siddons had wrote a note to me -respecting the print. That note, as I expected to be believed, I -never dreamt of showing; and I now blush at being forced to send it -in my own vindication. This I am forced to do as you are pleased to -say in your letter that Mrs. Siddons never did write or even speak -to me in favour of any artist.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a>{47}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_014" id="ill_014"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;"> -<a href="images/i_109_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_109_sml.jpg" width="420" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MRS. BRADDYL</p> - -<p>1788 or 1789. Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>But supposing Mrs. Siddons out of the question, my words (on which -you ground your demand of doing the print as a right, not as a -favour) I do not see can be interpreted as such an absolute -promise; they mean only, in the common acceptation, that you, being -the person who first applied, that circumstance should not be -forgot—that it should turn the scale in your favour, supposing an -equality in other respects.</p> - -<p>You say you wait the result of my determination. What sort of -determination can you expect after such a letter? You have been so -good as to give me a piece of advice—for the future to give -unequivocal answers; I shall immediately follow it, and do now, in -the most unequivocal manner, inform you that you shall not do the -print.</p></div> - -<p>With purely historical and subject pictures Sir Joshua may be said to -have increased his popularity more than his reputation. Of this class -there are comparatively few, for while Malone enumerates one hundred and -ten in “a general list of the most considerable,” no less than -thirty-five of these are primarily portraits, such as <i>The Graces -adorning a Term of Hymen</i>, <i>The Marlborough Family</i>, &c. &c. And while -we acknowledge some of his very finest<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a>{48}</span> achievements to be portraits and -portrait groups treated in this allegorical manner, when we turn to the -“fancy subjects” we find little of which the importance is equal to its -sentimental charm.</p> - -<p>Nor are the most notable exceptions, as might be expected, those for -which he received the largest commissions, namely: <i>The Infant -Hercules</i>, £1500; <i>The Nativity</i>, £1200; <i>Macbeth</i>, £1000; <i>Cardinal -Beaufort</i>, £500; <i>The Continence of Scipio</i>, £500; <i>A Holy Family</i>, -£500; <i>Count Hugolino</i>, £400; <i>A Gipsy Telling Fortunes</i>, £350; <i>Tuccia, -the Vestal Virgin</i>, £300.</p> - -<p><i>The Infant Hercules</i> was commenced in January 1786, at a time, that is -to say, when he was at the very height of his power. His niece, Miss -Palmer, writing to a cousin abroad during this month, says: “My uncle -seems more bewitched than ever with his pallet and pencils. He is -painting from morning till night, and the truth is that every picture -that he does seems better than the former. He is just going to begin a -picture for the Empress of Russia, who has sent to desire he will paint -her an historical one. The subject is left to his own choice, and at -present he is undetermined what to choose.”</p> - -<p>The picture is now in St. Petersburg, and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a>{49}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_015" id="ill_015"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 301px;"> -<a href="images/i_115_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_115_sml.jpg" width="301" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MRS. SIDDONS AS THE TRAGIC MUSE</p> - -<p>1789. Dulwich Gallery</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">only know it from engravings. Tom Taylor considered it “a confused -straggling picture, quite beyond the power of the painter to manage.” -But this is scarcely the criticism it deserves, and we prefer the more -adulatory notices of his contemporaries. In the Exhibition of 1788—the -last but two in which Reynolds was represented—it was hung over the -chimney-piece. “It was the first picture which presented itself on -entering the room,” says Northcote, “and had the most splendid effect of -any picture I ever saw.... It was a large and grand composition, and in -respect to beauty, colour, and expression was equal to any picture known -in the world. The middle group, which received the principal light, was -exquisite in the highest degree.” James Barry was no less enthusiastic -over it: “Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of light, the force and -vigorous effect ... it possesses all that we look for and are accustomed -to admire in Rembrandt, united to beautiful forms and to an elevation of -mind to which Rembrandt had no pretensions; the prophetical agitation of -Tiresias and Juno, enveloped with clouds, hanging over the scene like a -black pestilence, can never be too much admired, and is, indeed, truly -sublime.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a>{50}</span></p> - -<p><i>The Nativity</i>, which he painted in 1779, was purchased by the Duke of -Rutland at the then unheard of price of £1200. Unfortunately it perished -in a fire at Belvoir Castle, and we only know it from the engraving, and -from the rendering of it in glass by Jervas as the central part of the -western window of New College, Oxford. But it is doubtful whether the -loss is as great as it is deplorable, in view of the opinions expressed -by at least two not unfriendly critics. Mason tells us that “the day of -opening the Exhibition that year when the picture was in hand approached -too hastily upon Sir Joshua, who had resolved that it should then make -its public appearance. I saw him at work upon it, even the very day -before it was to be sent thither; and it grieved me to see him laying -loads of colour and varnish upon it....” Benjamin Haydon when the whole -series was exhibited in 1821, allowing that they are unequalled by any -series of allegorical designs painted by an English master, and that the -<i>Charity</i> in particular is “very lovely,” and “may take its place -triumphantly by any Correggio on earth,” is merciless to <i>The Nativity</i>. -He condemns it for “having emptiness as breadth, plastering for surface, -and portrait individuality for general nature.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a>{51}</span></p> - -<p>The <i>Macbeth</i>, which was commenced just a year after <i>The Infant -Hercules</i>, was a commission from Alderman Boydell—half of which, -by-the-by, was paid in advance—as part of the scheme for the -Shakespeare Gallery. The <i>Cardinal Beaufort</i> was the same. Neither can -be said to have advanced Sir Joshua’s reputation or even his popularity -as much as the <i>Puck</i>, which was purchased by Boydell for inclusion in -the Shakespeare series, although not originally intended for it.</p> - -<p><i>The Continence of Scipio</i> followed the <i>Hercules</i> to Russia. The <i>Holy -Family</i>, which was commissioned by Macklin for a Bible illustration, has -lately been restored and rehung in the National Gallery. It was for long -supposed to have suffered beyond repair, but the restorer, if he has not -done too much to it, has certainly not done too little, and it now -presents an appearance which attracts to it a greater amount of -attention from the casual visitor than from the student.</p> - -<p>In his minor works of this class, however, there is much more both to -charm and to satisfy. If his children have not quite the same -spontaneous gaiety of Gainsborough’s, they have many other qualities and -distinctions which Gainsborough’s lack.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a>{52}</span> With the <i>Heads of Angels</i> and -<i>The Age of Innocence</i> Reynolds is sure of his public in any period.</p> - -<p><i>The Strawberry Girl</i>, as Sir Joshua always maintained, was one of the -“half-dozen original things” which he declared no man ever exceeded in -his life’s work. He repeated the picture several times. Lord Carysfort -bought the original from the Exhibition of 1773 for £50, but at the sale -of Samuel Rogers’ collection it was bought by the Marquis of Hertford -for 2100 guineas.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>To realise the full extent of England’s debt to Reynolds one must read -his “Discourses” as well as look at his pictures. It is in passages such -as the concluding paragraph of his farewell address to the Academy -students that we find the real secrets of his success. Speaking of -Michel Angelo, he says: “It will not, I hope, be thought presumptuous in -me to appear in the train, I cannot say of his imitators, but of his -admirers. I have taken another course, one more suited to my abilities -and to the taste of the times in which I live. Yet however unequal I -feel myself to that attempt, were I now to begin the world<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a>{53}</span></p> - -<p><a name="ill_016" id="ill_016"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;"> -<a href="images/i_123_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i_123_sml.jpg" width="417" height="500" alt="[image not available]" /></a> -<div class="caption"><p>MRS. NESBIT WITH A DOVE</p> - -<p>Wallace Collection, London</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="nind">again I would tread in the steps of that great master; to kiss the hem -of his garment, to catch the slightest of his perfections would be glory -and distinction enough for an ambitious man.</p> - -<p>“I feel a self-congratulation in knowing myself capable of such -sensations as he intended to excite. I reflect, not without vanity, that -these discourses bear testimony of my admiration of that truly divine -man, and I should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in -this Academy and from this place might be the name of—Michel Angelo.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a>{54}</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a>{55}</span></p> - -<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> - -<p class="c"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#J">J</a>, -<a href="#K">K</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#V">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a></p> - -<p class="nind"> -<a name="A" id="A"></a>“<span class="smcap">An</span> Argument in behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur,” <a href="#page_008">8</a><br /> - -Armstrong, Sir Walter, <a href="#page_039">39</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="B" id="B"></a><span class="smcap">Bleackley’s</span>, Horace, “Ladies Fair and Frail,” <a href="#page_039">39</a><br /> - -British Painting in the Eighteenth Century, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> - -Burke, Edmund, <a href="#page_016">16</a><br /> - -Burney Family, <a href="#page_041">41</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="C" id="C"></a><span class="smcap">Catts</span>’, Jacob, Book of Emblems, <a href="#page_006">6</a><br /> - -Chudleigh, Miss, commissioned to paint, <a href="#page_009">9</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="D" id="D"></a><span class="smcap">Dilettanti</span> Society, <a href="#page_035">35</a><br /> - -Dulwich Gallery, <a href="#page_044">44</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="E" id="E"></a><span class="smcap">Elizabeth</span>, Queen, <a href="#page_036">36</a><br /> - -“English Society of the Eighteenth Century in Contemporary Art,” <a href="#page_010">10</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="F" id="F"></a><span class="smcap">Farington</span>, Joseph, R.A., <a href="#page_020">20</a><br /> - -Fisher, Kitty, <a href="#page_039">39</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="G" id="G"></a><span class="smcap">Gainsborough</span>, Thomas, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="H" id="H"></a><span class="smcap">Hogarth</span>, William, <a href="#page_002">2</a>, <a href="#page_011">11</a>, <a href="#page_039">39</a><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Portrait of Bishop of Winchester</i>, <a href="#page_029">29</a></span><br /> - -Holbein’s <i>Duchess of Milan</i>, <a href="#page_035">35</a><br /> - -Hoppner, <a href="#page_014">14</a><br /> - -Hudson, Thomas, <a href="#page_008">8</a>, <a href="#page_020">20</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="J" id="J"></a><span class="smcap">Johnson</span>, Samuel, <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_041">41</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="K" id="K"></a><span class="smcap">Keppel</span>, Captain, invites Reynolds to accompany him to the Mediterranean, <a href="#page_012">12</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="L" id="L"></a><span class="smcap">Lawrence</span>, Sir Thomas, <a href="#page_014">14</a><br /> - -Lucan, Lord, <a href="#page_039">39</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="M" id="M"></a><span class="smcap">Malone</span>, Edmund, <a href="#page_016">16</a>, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a><br /> - -Marlborough Group, <a href="#page_011">11</a><br /> - -Mason’s “Observations on Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Method of Colouring,” <a href="#page_022">22</a><br /> - -Metastasio, <a href="#page_025">25</a><br /> - -Michel Angelo, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_052">52</a><br /> - -Morland, George, <a href="#page_016">16</a><br /> - -Mudge, Rev. Zachariah, <a href="#page_017">17</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="N" id="N"></a><span class="smcap">Northcote</span>, James, R.A., <a href="#page_009">9</a>, <a href="#page_031">31</a>, <a href="#page_045">45</a>, <a href="#page_049">49</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="P" id="P"></a><span class="smcap">Pictures</span> by Sir Joshua Reynolds<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>A Gipsy telling Fortunes</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>A Holy Family</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Boy in a Turban</i>, <a href="#page_020">20</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Captain Keppel</i>, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_022">22</a>, <a href="#page_030">30</a>, <a href="#page_031">31</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Captain Orme</i>, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_030">30</a>, <a href="#page_031">31</a>, <a href="#page_032">32</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Cardinal Beaufort</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Charity</i>, <a href="#page_050">50</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Continence of Scipio</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Conversation Piece</i>, <a href="#page_010">10</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Count Hugolino</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Heads of Angels</i>, <a href="#page_052">52</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Infant Hercules</i>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_049">49</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Kitty Fisher</i>, <a href="#page_039">39</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Ladies Sarah Lenox, Susan Strangways, and Charles James Fox</i>, <a href="#page_034">34</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Ladies Waldegrave</i>, <a href="#page_035">35</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lady Caroline Russell</i>, <a href="#page_035">35</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lady Elizabeth Keppel</i>, <a href="#page_034">34</a>, <a href="#page_035">35</a>, <a href="#page_036">36</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lord Heathfield</i>, <a href="#page_032">32</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lord Holderness</i>, <a href="#page_022">22</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lord Ligonier</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a>{56}</span> <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_032">32</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lords Huntingdon and Stormont</i>, <a href="#page_022">22</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Macbeth</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Mr. Fane and his Two Guardians</i>, <a href="#page_032">32</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Mrs. Bonfoy</i>, <a href="#page_036">36</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Mrs. Molesworth</i>, <a href="#page_037">37</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse</i>, <a href="#page_043">43</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Muscipula</i>, <a href="#page_033">33</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Nelly O’Brien</i>, <a href="#page_041">41</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Pitt (Lord Chatham)</i>, <a href="#page_039">39</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Polly Kennedy</i>, <a href="#page_042">42</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Puck</i>, <a href="#page_051">51</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Sleeping Girl</i>, <a href="#page_033">33</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Age of Innocence</i>, <a href="#page_052">52</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Graces adorning a Term of Hymen</i>, <a href="#page_047">47</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Marlborough Family</i>, <a href="#page_047">47</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Nativity</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_050">50</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>The Strawberry Girl</i>, <a href="#page_052">52</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Tuccia, the Vestal Virgin</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a></span><br /> - -Plympton, Birthplace of Reynolds, <a href="#page_005">5</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="R" id="R"></a><span class="smcap">Reynolds</span>, Sir Joshua, birth of, <a href="#page_005">5</a><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">drawing of Plympton School, <a href="#page_007">7</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early efforts, <a href="#page_005">5</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effects of his studies in Italy, <a href="#page_019">19</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">England’s debt to, <a href="#page_052">52</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">entries in his pocket-book, <a href="#page_028">28</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">introduction to Captain Keppel, <a href="#page_011">11</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lecturing at the Academy, <a href="#page_014">14</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Sir Charles Bunbury, <a href="#page_043">43</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Valentine Green, <a href="#page_046">46</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">memoranda of his efforts in Beechey’s Memoir, <a href="#page_024">24</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">painting <i>The Infant Hercules</i>, <a href="#page_048">48</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">portrait of himself, <a href="#page_009">9</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">President of the Royal Academy, <a href="#page_042">42</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prices obtained for pictures commissioned, <a href="#page_048">48</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">residence in Italy, <a href="#page_012">12</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sent to London, <a href="#page_008">8</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">settled at Plymouth, <a href="#page_009">9</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">studied under Thomas Hudson, <a href="#page_008">8</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success and continued improvement, <a href="#page_025">25</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">three years’ tour, <a href="#page_019">19</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Leslie and Taylor’s Life of, <a href="#page_016">16</a></span><br /> - -Reynolds, Rev. Samuel, <a href="#page_005">5</a><br /> - -Richardson, Jonathan, <a href="#page_007">7</a>, <a href="#page_029">29</a><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“Essay on the whole Art of Criticism as it relates to Painting,” <a href="#page_008">8</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“An argument in behalf of the Science of Connoisseur,” <a href="#page_008">8</a></span><br /> - -Romney, George, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_038">38</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="S" id="S"></a><span class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>, Quotation from, <a href="#page_032">32</a><br /> - -Siddons, Mrs., story of her portrait by Sir Joshua, <a href="#page_044">44</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="T" id="T"></a><span class="smcap">Taylor</span>, Tom, <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_041">41</a>, <a href="#page_049">49</a><br /> - -Thornhill, Sir James, <a href="#page_002">2</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="V" id="V"></a><span class="smcap">Veronese</span>, Paul, <a href="#page_035">35</a><br /> - -<br /> -<a name="W" id="W"></a><span class="smcap">Walpole</span>, Horace, <a href="#page_008">8</a><br /> - -West, Benjamin, <a href="#page_015">15</a><br /> - -Westmorland, Earl of, Collection, <a href="#page_032">32</a><br /> -</p> - -<p class="c"> -PRINTED AT<br /> -THE BALLANTYNE PRESS<br /> -LONDON<br /> -</p> -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reynolds, by Randall Davies - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REYNOLDS *** - -***** This file should be named 50315-h.htm or 50315-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/3/1/50315/ - -Produced by Shaun Pinder, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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