Joshua Reynolds Biography Quotes 12 Report mistakes

Early Life and Formation
Joshua Reynolds was born in 1723 in Plympton, Devon, into a scholarly household presided over by his father, the schoolmaster and clergyman Samuel Reynolds. The atmosphere of books and disciplined study sharpened his curiosity, but art quickly became his principal commitment. As a teenager he sketched voraciously, absorbing lessons from prints after Old Masters and from the limited provincial art he could access. In 1740 he entered the London studio of Thomas Hudson, then the leading portrait painter in England. There he learned the essentials of likeness, studio management, and the practical logistics of a bustling portrait practice. Ambitious and self-directed, he soon outgrew the routine of Hudson's formulas and returned briefly to the West Country to test his independence. Early commissions revealed both a facility for character and a hunger to raise portraiture to a higher, more dignified level.

Italian Journey and the Grand Manner
In 1749 Reynolds sailed with the naval officer Augustus Keppel to the Mediterranean and embarked on a transformative sojourn in Italy. He studied in Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice, copying and analyzing Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Rembrandt. From these models he derived the ideal of the Grand Manner: elevating the sitter beyond transient fashion toward noble, generalized form. Exposure to Venetian color deepened his palette, while Roman statuary suggested a sculptural gravitas he would apply to living subjects. An illness during these travels left him partially deaf, and he thereafter used an ear trumpet, but the setback did little to slow his momentum. When he returned to London in 1753, he possessed a clarified mission and a visual vocabulary that set him apart from competitors.

Establishing a London Career
Reynolds opened a studio that quickly became the most sought-after portrait shop in London. He painted admirals, actors, politicians, and society beauties, arranging sittings with a deft sense of theater. He later moved to a prominent house on Leicester Square, arranging a showpiece gallery where clients could see finished works and prospective patrons could be impressed by scale and ambition. Prints after his pictures, produced by leading engravers, spread his reputation far beyond the capital. Reynolds's sitters included David Garrick, whose mercurial acting he captured with psychological deftness, and the actress Sarah Siddons, immortalized as the Tragic Muse. He portrayed scientific and literary figures such as Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith, contributing to the visual identity of an age increasingly self-conscious about culture and intellect.

The Royal Academy and Public Leadership
In 1768 Reynolds was elected the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts, an institution established with the support of George III to raise standards in British art. Knighted the following year, he set a tone of authority blended with collegiality, presiding over exhibitions and student education. His Discourses on Art, delivered between 1769 and 1790 to the Academy's students, articulated a coherent program: study the Old Masters, cultivate general ideas over petty detail, and pursue history painting as the highest genre. He encouraged discipline and emulation while warning against mechanical imitation. Founding members working alongside him included Benjamin West, who would later succeed him as President, as well as Angelica Kauffman, whose presence as a celebrated painter broadened the Academy's cultural reach. Reynolds navigated the politics of the institution with tact, mediating disputes, shaping exhibition practices, and mentoring younger talents.

Intellectual Circles and The Club
Reynolds's studio was as much a salon as a workplace. He was a central figure in the circle of Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, and James Boswell, and he joined The Club, where conversation ranged from aesthetics to politics and moral philosophy. Burke, whom Reynolds painted several times, revered his judgment; Johnson, likewise a frequent sitter, valued his steadiness and social grace. Their conversations fed into Reynolds's Discourses and helped anchor his theoretical positions in broader Enlightenment debates. The presence of figures such as Joseph Banks and, at times, Adam Smith widened Reynolds's acquaintance with science and political economy, while the poet and novelist Fanny Burney recorded vivid glimpses of his character in her journals. Through this network he inhabited the heart of London's intellectual life.

Technique, Workshop, and Aesthetic Experiment
While Reynolds preached disciplined study, he was an experimenter in practice. He layered pigments, tried unconventional grounds, and used resinous glazes to achieve softness and luminosity. Some materials, notably bitumen, later caused cracking, a problem that did not diminish his contemporary reputation but challenged later conservators. He employed assistants and specialists within a well-ordered workshop, including the Italian painter Giuseppe Marchi and the skilled drapery painter Peter Toms, to expedite the demanding schedule of a premier studio. Yet the essential conception, the orchestration of pose, gesture, and mood, remained his own. He strove to harmonize color and composition so that the sitter's status and character emerged with dignity. His criticism of mere imitation rested on the belief that great art abstracts from particularity to reveal enduring truth.

Rivals, Friendships, and Sitters
Reynolds's principal rival was Thomas Gainsborough, whose lyrical touch and acute observation offered a counterpoint to the grandeur of Reynolds's ideal. The two vied for patrons and honors, and though rivalry sometimes sharpened their differences, mutual respect persisted. In the 1780s, when Gainsborough's health declined, they reconciled warmly. Reynolds also collaborated collegially within the Academy, acknowledging the strengths of artists such as Benjamin West and supporting Angelica Kauffman's prominent role. His patrons ranged from naval heroes to fashionable hostesses. The portrait of Lord Heathfield holding the key of Gibraltar became a patriotic emblem; the depiction of Omai, the Tahitian visitor to London, signaled curiosity about global encounters; his Three Ladies Waldegrave distilled elegance into a carefully controlled ceremonial harmony. These pictures made portraiture a vehicle for national self-definition.

Royal Connections and Honors
Reynolds's relationship with the monarchy strengthened over time. After the death of Allan Ramsay, he was appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III in 1784. Though the king favored different artistic temperaments at moments, Reynolds's administrative steadiness and public influence reinforced the Academy's standing. He maintained a careful balance between courtly service and intellectual independence. International recognition arrived as well, notably with a commission from Catherine the Great for The Infant Hercules, a rare foray into large-scale allegory consistent with his advocacy of history painting.

Late Career and Final Years
By the late 1780s Reynolds's health weakened. He suffered a failure of sight in one eye and curtailed his production, formally ceasing to paint in 1790. Still, he remained engaged with the Academy and with the friendship network that had sustained his career. Samuel Johnson had died earlier in the decade, and Edmund Burke emerged as the principal public voice lauding Reynolds's achievements. When Reynolds died in 1792 at his house in Leicester Square, London paid tribute with a grand funeral, and he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Burke's eulogies celebrated him as a civilizing figure who brought taste, courtesy, and intellectual ambition to British art.

Legacy and Influence
Reynolds left no direct heirs and never married, but he did leave a lineage of practice and ideas. His Discourses became a cornerstone of British academic teaching, shaping generations of students. Pupils and assistants such as James Northcote carried forward his methods and preserved invaluable recollections of his studio. Even artists who reacted against his authority, including rising talents of the 1790s, defined themselves through dialogue with his principles. Prints disseminated his portraits so widely that his images of Johnson, Burke, Garrick, and Siddons became canonical versions of their public selves. Though the material instability of some paintings complicated his posthumous reputation, the breadth of his accomplishment as painter, teacher, organizer, and cultural interlocutor secured his standing. In the consolidation of London as a center of artistic life, and in the elevation of portraiture to a vehicle for national culture, Joshua Reynolds remains a commanding and formative presence.

Our collection contains 12 quotes who is written by Joshua, under the main topics: Wisdom - Art - Learning - Work Ethic.