Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) – Main Themes and Key Ideas

This briefing document summarizes the main themes and important facts about Sir Joshua Reynolds, a dominant figure in 18th-century British art, drawing from the provided sources.

1. Overview and Significance

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was the preeminent English portraitist of the 18th century, profoundly shaping British art for five decades. He is remembered for elevating portraiture to a higher art form and for his foundational role as the first President of the Royal Academy. As the source notes, “He dominated British art for five decades and is one of the most important British artists of the eighteenth century.” His reputation, though immense in his time, has “faded today perhaps because, although at the time he experimented with materials, he is today regarded as a safe painter of his time.”

2. Biography and Career Trajectory

• Early Life and Education: Born July 16, 1723, in Plympton, Devon, to a headmaster and clergyman, Reynolds had a more educated background than many painters. His “early exposure to classical education and drawing shaped his intellectual approach to art.”
• Apprenticeship and Early Discontent: He was apprenticed in 1740 to London portraitist Thomas Hudson, mastering conventional 18th-century portraiture but growing “dissatisfied with its limitations.”
• Italian Grand Tour (1749-1752): This period was pivotal. He “meticulously study[ed] Renaissance masters—particularly Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael—whose influence permeated his later ‘Grand Style,’ blending realism with idealized grandeur.”
• Dominance in London Portraiture: Returning to London in 1753, he “swiftly dominated the portrait market, appealing to aristocrats, intellectuals, and celebrities.” His “Captain the Hon. Augustus Keppel” (1752-53) is cited as launching his career as “London’s premier portraitist.”
• Founding of the Royal Academy and Presidency: A key figure in London’s intellectual life and a friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson, Reynolds was elected the first President of the Royal Academy upon its founding in 1768. This “cemented his authority.” He was knighted in 1769.
• Discourses on Art: Delivered between 1769 and 1790, his Discourses on Art “became foundational texts for academic art theory,” arguing that painters “should not slavishly copy nature but seek a generalised and ideal form.”
• Later Life and Death: His later years were marked by failing eyesight and a deteriorating hearing (due to a chill during his Italian travels). He died in London on February 23, 1792, and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, signifying his “national stature.”

3. Artistic Style and Innovations

• The “Grand Style”: Reynolds was a primary proponent of the “Grand Style” in painting, which “depended on idealization of the imperfect.” He sought to “elevate portraiture to the level of high art,” adapting the Grand Manner (traditionally for history painting) “very successfully to portraiture.”
• Influence of Old Masters: His work demonstrates a deep study of “ancient and Italian Renaissance art, and of the work of Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck,” which “brought great variety and dignity to British portraiture.” Examples include:
• “Captain the Hon. Augustus Keppel” (1752-53): Evokes the “classical contrapposto pose” of the Apollo Belvedere and shows “Venetian influence” in dramatic lighting.
• “Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers” (1769): Its “tight composition and the scene echoes the work of Titian.”
• “Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen” (1774): Its composition “was inspired by this engraving called the Slumbering Silenus Tied up with Tendrils by Francesco Romanelli” and borrows from “Pompeian frescoes.”
• Blurring Genre Boundaries: Reynolds often pushed the boundaries between portraiture and history painting, notably in works like “Kitty Fisher as Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl” (1759), which “blurs portraiture and history painting, a radical approach for depicting a living woman.”
• Experimentation with Technique: He “experimented with materials.” His early “Lady with a Fan” (c. 1746) hints at his “future dynamism” beyond Hudson’s delicate rendering. “The Strawberry Girl” (1772-73) showcases “loose brushwork and warm palette show Reynolds experimenting with techniques learned from Rubens.”
• Technical Flaws: Despite his experimentation, the “National Gallery” source notes that “His paintings are not perfectly preserved due to faulty technique. The carmine reds have faded, leaving flesh-tones paler than intended, and the bitumen used in the blacks has tended to crack.”

4. Key Themes in Reynolds’ Work and Context

• Elevation of British Art and Artists: Reynolds, through the Royal Academy, aimed to “raise the status of art and artists in Britain from a tradesman’s craft to an admired scholarly profession.” The RA’s mission included “Education,” “Exhibition,” and “Professionalization.”
• The Hierarchy of Genres: Reynolds agreed with the established hierarchy (History painting, Portrait painting, Genre painting, Landscape, Animal painting, Still life) but believed “an artist of genius, such as Titian, could elevate any subject however mean by investing it with grandeur and importance.” His adaptation of the Grand Manner to portraiture exemplifies this.
• Portraits of Women and Social Commentary: Reynolds frequently painted women who “floated polite social codes,” including courtesans and actresses like Kitty Fisher and Nelly O’Brien, and Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue. These works were often controversial, pushing “the limits of the acceptable.” For example, painting Kitty Fisher at all “gave her a form of public legitimacy shocking for someone regarded as so morally scandalous. To elevate her to a queen compounded the shock.”
• Childhood and Sentimentality: In his later career, Reynolds produced sentimental depictions of children, such as “The Age of Innocence” (?1788). These works reflected the “preoccupation with notions of childhood” influenced by Rousseau, helping “establish a cult of childhood in Europe.”
• Mythology and Political Allegory: He engaged with mythological subjects, though less frequently than history painting. “Count Ugolino and His Children in the Dungeon” (1773) was his “most ambitious history painting to date,” aiming “to prove British art could rival Continental traditions in emotional power.” Later, “The Infant Hercules Strangling Serpents in his Cradle” (1788) symbolized “Britain’s emerging imperial power.”
• Cultural Intersection and Imperialism: “Portrait of Omai” (1776) depicts a Polynesian visitor, blending “ethnographic detail with classical idealism, presenting Mai as… a ‘noble savage.’” It reflects “Enlightenment fascination with other cultures” and “British imperial pride.”

5. Controversies and Relationships

• Rivalry with Hogarth: “Captain the Hon. Augustus Keppel” was praised by Horace Walpole, who remarked it “made every other portrait look like a puppet show,” cementing Reynolds’ rivalry with Hogarth.
• Plagiarism Accusations and The Conjuror: Nathaniel Hone’s painting The Conjuror (1775) satirized Reynolds, accusing him of plagiarism for his practice of “borrowing poses from Old Master paintings to ennoble his portraits.” The painting specifically referenced Reynolds’ borrowings from Michelangelo, Carlo Maratta, and Francesco Romanelli. Reynolds, however, openly asserted in his Discourses, “no man need be ashamed of copying the ancients.”
• Relationship with Angelica Kauffman: Reynolds had a close friendship with Angelica Kauffman, which “set tongues wagging in society” and was a subject of Hone’s satirical The Conjuror.

6. Legacy

Reynolds’ statue still greets visitors to the Royal Academy, a testament to his central role in British art history. He “became the Academy’s first President in 1768, and this work served as a visual testament to his legacy, emphasizing his commitment to elevating art through education and classical ideals.” His Discourses continue to be fundamental texts in academic art theory. He passed away as “artists such as J.M.W. Turner and John Constable championed the new Romantic style,” marking the end of an era.