Sir Joshua Reynolds Self-portrait ca. 1747-49 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was by far the busiest and best respected portrait painter in 18th-century England. He convincingly updated the grand manner of Italian Renaissance portraiture. Yet there are problems, according to curators at the National Gallery in London – "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 black has tended to crack." (The connoisseur's irritation is audible in those words – should not the President of the Royal Academy have known better?)
Sir Joshua Reynolds Anne Dashwood as Shepherdess 1764 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Colonel Banastre Tarleton 1782 National Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds David Garrick & Eva Maria Garrick 1772-73 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Anne, 2nd Countess of Albemarle ca. 1760 National Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Charles Watson Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister ca. 1768 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Horace Walpole, author 1756-57 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Mrs. Fitzherbert, wife of the future George IV ca. 1788 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds The Honorable Henry Fane with Inigo Jones and Charles Blair 1761-66 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Laurence Sterne, author ca. 1760 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joseph Banks, naturalist 1771-73 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India 1766-68 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds Lady Cockburn with her three eldest sons 1773 National Gallery (U.K.) |
Sir Joshua Reynolds William Beckford, author 1782 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |