file which includes the original illustrations1 some of which are in color4 ,see #dadig-;h4htm or #dadig-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu b_/#dadig_/pg#dadig-;images4html7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#da dig_/dadig-;h4zip7 ,images of the original pages are available through ,internet ,archive4 ,see http3_/_/archive4org_/details_/reynolds# jj;bensuoft ,masterpieces in ,colour ,edited by--,t4 ,leman ,hare ,,reynolds #agbc-agib 99 99 99 99 99 ,,in ,,the ,,same ,,series ,,artist4 ,,author4 ,,velazquez4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,reynolds4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,turner4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,romney4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,greuze4 ,,alys ,,eyre ,,macklin4 ,,botticelli4 ,,henry ,b4 ,,binns4 ,,rossetti4 ,,lucien ,,pissarro4 ,,bellini4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,fra ,,angelico4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,rembrandt4 ,,josef ,,israels4 ,,leighton4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,raphael4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,holman ,,hunt4 ,,mary ,e4 ,,coleridge4 ,,titian4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,millais4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,carlo ,,dolci4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,gainsborough4 ,,max ,,rothschild4 ,,tintoretto4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,luini4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,franz ,,hals4 ,,edgcumbe ,,staley4 ,,van ,,dyck4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci4 ,m4 ,w4 ,,brockwell4 ,,rubens4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,whistler4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,,holbein4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,burne-,,jones4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,vig,e ,,le ,,brun4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,chardin4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,fragonard4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,memlinc4 ,w4 ,h4 ,j4 ,j4 ,c4 ,,weale4 ,,constable4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,raeburn4 ,,james ,l4 ,,caw4 ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,others in ,preparation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,,mrs4 ,,hoare ,,and ,,child4 ,in the ,wallace ,collection1 ,london4 7,frontispiece7 ,this picture is perhaps one of ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds' most beautiful compositions4 ,the flesh painting is very fine and the handling of the dress remarkably free1 its delicate colouring being in beautiful harmony with the surroundings4 ,the painter gave us a portrait of the same child when he was a boy2 it is now in the collection of ,baron ,albert de ,rothschild4 ,sir ,joshua made for this picture a sketch in oils which hangs in the ,gallery at ,bridgewater ,house4 ,,reynolds by ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan ,illustrated with ,eight ,reproductions in ,colour ,illustration ,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,jack ,new ,york3 ,frederick ,a4 ,stokes ,co4 ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,mrs4 ,hoare and ,child ,frontispiece ,in the ,wallace ,collection1 ,london ,page ,,ii4 ,nelly ,o',brien #ad ,in the ,wallace ,collection1 ,london ,,iii4 ,the ,three ,graces #bd ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,,iv4 ,the ,age of ,innocence #cd ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,v4 ,lord ,heathfield #dj ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,,vi4 ,portrait of ,two ,gentlemen #ej ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,,vii4 ,portrait of ,lady and ,child #fj ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,,viii4 ,duchess of ,devonshire and ,child #gj ,at ,chatsworth ,house1 ,derbyshire ,illustration ,there are certain men born to every generation who approach life with the complete assurance of distinction in any work that they may have chosen for the exercise of their gifts4 ,they are strangers to doubt and uncertainty2 they disarm ,fortune by claiming freely as a right what she is accustomed to grant grudgingly as a favour--they ride ,life's lists as a knight might ride4 ,one feels that these fortunate few are destined for success just as the majority are doomed to failure1 that nothing save a long series of mishaps can keep them from the goal of their ambition4 ,they have the temperament that makes achievement easy1 and a steadfast determination that the demons of mischance cannot resist for long4 ,when one turns to consider ,english art in the eighteenth century1 the name of ,joshua ,reynolds stands out in a brighter light than any other4 ,one would not say that he was the greatest painter of his time--,gainsborough's gifts exceeded his in many directions1 and ,romney enters into competition too--but ,reynolds was born under a fortunate star1 and ,nature gave him as a birthday present a rare mixture of talent1 industry1 and common-sense1 together with a sober judgment that could not be turned aside by passion or emotion4 ,such gifts1 if they do not always create a genius1 may enable their possessor to achieve work that has certain affinities with the masterpieces of the immortals4 ,nobody in these days would deny for a moment that ,reynolds possessed qualifications of the highest order2 but ours is an age of hero-worship1 and we are rather inclined to go beyond our brief in dealing with a representative man whose work has survived the criticism 7though1 alas1 it has not always survived the atmosphere7 of nearly two centuries4 ,reynolds is not the less a great painter because he did not happen to be the great man so many of his biographers have seen1 nor was he a heaven-sent genius of the kind that flutters the musical dovecots from time to time4 ,infant prodigies are hardly known in the world of art1 and ,reynolds started life as a clever young man determined to make a name4 ,he became soon a painter strong enough to realise his own limitations and those of his age1 and to take the best possible steps to secure for his own art1 and incidentally for that of his country1 the highest position in the esteem of the world at large4 ,had there been no ,reynolds there might have been no ,royal ,academy--the ,institution in its earliest days was indebted very deeply to him4 ,himself far above the squabbles of the hour1 he raised the ,royal ,academy into the serene and almost untroubled atmosphere in which he lived his life4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,nelly ,o',,brien4 7,in the ,wallace ,collection7 ,this portrait is one of the best examples of ,sir ,joshua's art1 and was painted in #agfc4 ,the shadow on the face is most skilfully managed4 ,the lace round the arm and the skirt are painted in the artist's best manner4 ,it will be remembered that ,sir ,joshua painted other portraits of this fascinating woman4 ,i will be a painter1 if you will give me the chance of being a good one1 he is said to have remarked when quite a lad1 and this is but one of the simple sentences that hold and in a sense reveal the keynote of his character4 ,reynolds was determined to succeed4 ,when he started his work there were few people in ,england who could guide him in the right way1 and consequently we must not look for any great achievement in the early portraits4 ,the painter may be said to have owed his first success to ,commodore ,keppel1 who took him on a cruise in the ,mediterranean and helped him to come into touch with the great masterpieces that will probably stimulate artists for all time4 ,in return1 the painter gave the sailor a measure of fame that his naval achievements would hardly have secured4 ,italy turned the dross of ,reynolds' art to fine gold1 and he never shrank from acknowledging the debt4 ,had he stayed in ,england he might have been a greater man than all his contemporaries1 save ,gainsborough and ,romney1 but he could not have given the world any one of the pictures that are reproduced here4 ,art will not yield to inspiration alone4 ,the musician1 or the literary man1 with very simple education may be able to achieve wonders1 but the artist who looks to brushes and colours for his medium must sacrifice diligently for many years at the shrine of technique before his hand can express what is in his brain4 ,the years between #agdi and #ageb1 devoted by ,reynolds to studying and copying the ,vatican frescoes and the pictures of ,padua1 ,milan1 ,turin1 and ,paris1 were invaluable4 ,indeed he was one of the greatest copyists of his time1 and ,sir ,walter ,armstrong thinks that one of his copies of a ,rembrandt is classed among the originals in the ,national ,gallery to-day6 ,down to the year of the ,italian journey the young painter's life had been quite uneventful4 ,born in #agbc at ,plympton in ,devonshire1 where his father was a school-master1 he was apprenticed in ,london to ,thomas ,hudson1 a portrait painter of the day and a ,devon man too4 ,hudson gave his pupil ,guercino's drawings to copy4 ,before the time of apprenticeship had expired ,reynolds had quarrelled with his master and gone back to ,devonshire1 where he painted work that was of no great importance1 under the patronage of the first ,lord ,edgcumbe4 ,at his house ,reynolds met the ,commodore ,keppel1 whose kindness enabled him to see ,italy1 and it was the sojourn in that real home of art that brought ,reynolds back to ,england a portrait painter of the first class4 ,michelangelo had impressed him deeply4 ,in later days he never lost an opportunity of advising students to sit at the feet of the great master1 and the influence of the work in the ,sistine ,chapel may be noted in the famous picture of ,mrs4 ,siddons1 now to be seen in the ,dulwich ,gallery4 ,ludovico ,caracci and ,guido had given him hints that were of infinite value in the moulding of his technique2 for colour he had gone to ,titian1 ,tintoretto1 and ,rubens1 of whom the last named was beginning to lose his appeal in the last years of ,reynolds' life4 ,sir ,joshua had a supreme facility for taking from every artist the best that was in him1 melting it in the crucible of his own thought1 and applying the product to his pictures4 ,there is no doubt that the sixteenth-century ,venetians impressed ,reynolds as much as they impressed ,ruskin at a later date1 but in the middle of the eighteenth century the school of ,bologna was in the ascendant in ,england1 and it is through ,reynolds' actions rather than his words that we see how ,venice had influenced him4 ,sir ,walter ,armstrong thinks that ,reynolds lived well rather than wisely in ,italy1 and that when he came back to town his wild oats were all sown1 but it is hard to find any justification for the belief that ,reynolds was at any time of his life a free liver4 ,the pleasures of the table may have claimed him when he reached middle age2 indeed1 ,dr4 ,johnson said to him on one occasion1 ,you complain about the tea ,i drink1 but ,i do not count the glasses you empty1 or words to that effect4 ,as far as other forms of dissipation go1 there is no evidence that ,reynolds was ever a victim to them4 ,he was always perfect master of his self-control1 and when the years had toned down certain faults of thought and manner1 he became mellowed1 like old wine1 and not less stimulating4 ,students of the famous discourses that ,sir ,joshua addressed annually to the ,royal ,academy after he became first ,president of the new institution1 may be justified if they suspect that the great painter adopted the same rule in dealing with his students that skilled musical composers use when dealing with their pupils4 ,a musican knows that the laws of harmony and counterpoint are not fixed1 that the musical horizon widens year by year1 and that rules may often be disregarded by a composer who has something to say2 but1 in order that composition may grow from some definite form1 it is necessary that the rules should be mastered before they are disregarded4 ,so in dealing with things of art1 ,reynolds said much to his audience that his own practice did not bear out4 ,he would not hint at his own preferences quite so frankly as his canvases did and it is not at all unlikely that he realised as well as we do1 that while students1 like the poor1 are always with us1 great artists are few and far between1 and will survive all academic limitations4 ,when ,reynolds came back to ,england in #ageb1 he went down to ,devonshire to recruit his health4 ,while his sojourn abroad had been productive of so much that had been invaluable to him1 he had met with two unfortunate accidents4 ,in ,minorca he had fallen from his horse and sustained injuries that had left his face scarred for all time4 ,in the ,vatican he had sustained a chill that brought about the deafness destined to be a life-long infirmity4 ,so he took holiday in the county he loved so well1 and after his return he opened a studio in ,st4 ,martin's ,street1 acting on the advice of his friend and patron1 ,lord ,edgcumbe4 ,there was no period of weary waiting4 ,thanks to the quality of his work and the patronage granted so freely1 he began at once to enjoy the success that belongs to the popular portrait painter4 ,a little later he moved to ,great ,newport ,street1 where the accommodation was better suited to the growing claims of sitters1 and in #agfj he went to #dg ,leicester ,square1 now an auction-house1 where he lived for the remainder of his life4 ,as he moved he raised his prices1 but nobody seemed to mind4 ,everybody who was anybody1 paid cheerfully4 ,so did some of the other people4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,the ,,three ,,graces4 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this picture was exhibited at the ,royal ,academy in #aggd and called1 ,three ,ladies adorning a ,term of ,hymen4 ,it was bequeathed to the ,national ,gallery by the ,earl of ,blessington4 ,the ,graces are the three daughters of ,sir ,w4 ,montgomery4 ,the one on the left kneeling down is the ,hon4 ,mrs4 ,beresford1 in the centre is the ,hon4 ,mrs4 ,gardener1 mother of ,lord ,blessington1 and on the right is the ,marchioness ,townsend4 ,many artists remain painters all their lives4 ,meet them in a studio or at a private view and they are illuminating2 talk about another lying outside their immediate interests and they are dumb1 or worse1 for some talk without saying anything1 as though they were mere politicians4 ,perhaps we have no right to complain of this lack of mental dimensions1 but it is permissible to note with pleasure the few cases in which an artist reveals himself as an accomplished man of the world4 ,reynolds would never have been content to be nothing more than a painter1 and he chose his friends so wisely that the living served him as well as the dead4 ,if the great artists of ,italy had shed light upon his path in one direction1 what did he not owe to the men of his own generation1 whose society must have been a source of inspiration to any intelligent man8 ,dr4 ,johnson himself could only have been inspiring company1 even though we may think in our heart of hearts that the benefit of the inspiration was not without serious drawbacks4 ,reynolds enjoyed also the intimate friendship of ,garrick1 ,goldsmith1 ,gibbon1 and ,burke1 he consorted with many other men who made some mark in the world of thought1 and in this atmosphere the extraordinary receptivity of his mind must have served him to great advantage4 ,he had human weaknesses to live down1 and it is to his credit that he conquered all or most of them4 ,like so many honest ,englishmen1 there was a touch of the snob about him--witness his correspondence with ,lord ,edgcumbe during the first visit to the ,continent4 ,he was not without jealousy1 as may be seen from his pettish condemnation of the work of ,liotard1 the miniature painter and pastellist1 and his references to ,gainsborough and ,romney1 whose success and accomplishments galled him not a little4 ,he was vulgar1 until he learned refinement from the distinguished people with whom he was brought into contact--witness the gilded coach and gaudy liveries he bought when he established himself in ,leicester ,square1 the coach in which his unfortunate sister ,frances was compelled to drive in order that the man in the street might stare open-mouthed and talk about her brother4 ,there is hardly a ,lion ,comique1 or a lady of the music halls drawing prime minister's salary for songs blatant or obscene1 who would commit such an offence to-day1 and against these lapses from taste ,sir ,joshua's acquaintance with the best minds of his day failed to save him4 ,perhaps the atmosphere of ,leicester ,square in the eighteenth1 as in the twentieth1 century was a little theatrical4 ,of course the faults of a man and the merits of his work are distinct and stand apart from one another1 but we are too apt to look at ,reynolds the man in the light of ,goldsmith's epitaph1 and it is the failing of popular biography to supply popular people with a measure of moral equipment that would make a saint self-conscious4 ,it is far more interesting to see great men as they lived1 and understand that1 like the rest of us1 they had a fair1 or unfair1 share of faults4 ,had ,sir ,joshua possessed twice as many failings1 he would still remain one of the greatest1 if not the greatest1 of ,british portrait painters4 ,had he associated all the virtues with less achievement1 he could not have interested us1 because happily we do not judge art by the moral standard of the artist4 ,perhaps the most remarkable side of ,reynolds' mind was seen in its response to the real truths that underlie all the arts4 ,he held his work to be a mode of expressing human experience1 he knew that there was a domain lying beyond the reach of rules1 and bade his students look with dilated eye1 sacrificing detail to general effect for the sake of the best and most imaginative work4 ,he declared without any reservations1 that he had found art in ,england in the lowest possible state1 he compared some of his contemporaries' work with sign-post painting1 but his fine courage was only stimulated by the bad conditions that prevailed4 ,he sought to raise them1 and as a portrait painter1 made it his business to discover the perfections of his sitters1 with the result1 that1 as his genius was wholly interpretative1 his pictures stand rather less for his sitters than for their time4 ,a weak man might have succumbed to the temptations that beset ,reynolds when he had established himself in ,leicester ,square4 ,he was in a sense the darling of society1 earning a larger income than had been gained by any of his contemporaries1 although he painted for prices that a third-rate man could gain to-day1 if we do not regard the changed value of money4 ,but ,reynolds never succumbed to society2 he conquered it1 showing himself worthy of all the success that came to him4 ,he did his best1 he worked hard1 relaxing his efforts only when his position was unassailable1 took his enjoyment temperately1 if we consider the age in which he lived1 and never forgot that his chief aim and object in life was to paint portraits1 and to paint them as well as he could4 ,there were years in which he completed from three to four portraits every week1 but by the time he was ,president of the ,royal ,academy1 the output had fallen to sixty or seventy a year1 no small achievement for a man who was at liberty to enjoy all that was best1 and brightest1 and most enduring in ,london society1 and everything most attractive in the country4 ,the life and times of ,sir ,joshua have a special interest for ,british artists1 even apart from his work1 because he lived through the years of storm and strife that saw the development of the ,r4,a4 ,it is not easy to tell in full the story of its establishment without long and detailed references to the quarrels and intrigues of the artists of the day and even then it is not easy to see the truth clearly through the mists of controversy4 ,none of ,sir ,joshua's biographies goes uncontradicted1 and it is safe to say that we must be content to forego for all time exact knowledge of certain incidents in the life of ,reynolds4 ,he had considerable reserve1 a fair sense of diplomacy1 and was not without knowledge that there were foes as well as friends in the crowd that surrounded him4 ,his contemporaries were often baffled by his silence1 and the secrets of his tastes and intimate likes and dislikes died with him4 ,he had friends1 but no confidantes4 ,a brief outline of the creation of the ,r4,a4 is all that needs be given here4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,the ,,age ,,of ,,innocence4 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this picture was bought at the sale of ,mr4 ,harman's pictures4 ,it has been engraved two or three times and is one of the most popular examples of the master's work4 ,in the year #agfj1 when ,reynolds was approaching the zenith of his fame1 an art exhibition was held in ,london1 attracted a great deal of attention1 and became an annual institution4 ,thereafter1 we begin to hear of the ,society of ,artists1 which received from ,george ,,iii4 a certificate of ,incorporation in #agfe1 blossomed out with the grandiloquent title of the ,incorporated ,society of ,artists of ,great ,britain1 and published a list of two hundred and eleven members1 including ,joshua ,reynolds4 ,an offshoot from this society was known as the ,free ,society of ,artists2 in the history of art there have always been some men agin the government4 ,heart-burning and jealousy were associated with the work of the ,incorporated ,society1 and ,william ,chambers the architect1 who had the king's ear1 brought about the foundation of the ,r4,a4 ,reynolds took no visible part in the intrigue1 in fact he was abroad during the months when the squabbles were most violent1 and when the ,presidency was offered to him1 he asked for time to discuss the matter with ,dr4 ,johnson and ,edmund ,burke4 ,apparently he had studied ,shakspere's ,julius ,csar4 ,in ,december #agfh1 the constitution of the ,royal ,academy was signed by the ,king1 and the ,incorporated ,society was left to linger for a few years in the cold shades of opposition and then depart from a world that had no further use for it4 ,william ,chambers and ,benjamin ,west seem to have done all that was necessary to bring ,king ,george on to the side of the new venture1 which had a very wide constitution1 and thirty-six original members1 including two ladies1 ,angelica ,kaufmann and ,mary ,moser4 ,william ,chambers became ,treasurer1 ,dalton was appointed ,antiquary1 ,goldsmith was ,professor of ,ancient ,history1 and ,dr4 ,johnson stood for ,ancient ,literature4 ,curiously enough1 it was the foundation by ,captain ,coram of the ,foundling ,hospital that led indirectly to the creation of the ,royal ,academy4 ,hogarth1 who was a great friend of ,coram1 gave pictures for the gallery in the ,hospital1 ,reynolds' old master1 ,hudson1 ,reynolds himself1 and ,wilson1 a contemporary painter of great achievement1 did the same4 ,mr4 ,claude ,phillips1 whose life of ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds is one of the best written and most discerning tributes to the master extant1 thinks that the success of the gallery at the ,foundlings led to the opening of the first exhibition of pictures by living masters in #ahfj4 ,the ,society of ,arts was then six years old1 and the ,society of ,artists was established in friendly rivalry4 ,we have remarked that at the time when the ,incorporated ,society of ,artists was engaged in the final quarrel that led to the foundation of the ,academy1 ,sir ,joshua was travelling abroad with ,richard ,burke4 ,his absence from the scene of strife is more likely to have been diplomatic than unintentional4 ,,ii ,we have now come down to the year #agfi1 and may pause with advantage to recall some of ,sir ,joshua's achievements and experiences that have been omitted from a rather hurried survey4 ,he has already painted many of the most famous men and women of his time1 and his contributions to the exhibitions of the ,society of ,artists have been the admiration of all who take an interest in pictures4 ,here some of his most famous pictures have been hung1 the ,lady ,elizabeth ,keppel as a bridesmaid1 the ,countess ,waldegrave1 ,garrick between ,tragedy and ,comedy 7now in ,lord ,rothschild's town house7 and many others too numerous to be mentioned in such a brief review as this4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,lord ,,heathfield4 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this work which is held by good judges to be one of the most characteristic portraits painted by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds was commissioned by ,alderman ,boydell in #aghg4 ,in the background there is a view of the ,rock of ,gibraltar much obscured by smoke1 for the picture commemorates the defence of the ,rock from #aggi to #aghc by ,lord ,heathfield1 then ,general ,eliott4 ,the gallant soldier holds the key of the fortress in his hand4 ,the picture was purchased by the ,government for the ,national ,gallery in #ahbd4 ,he has made another pleasant journey into ,devonshire1 this time in company with ,dr4 ,johnson1 whose consumption of cider and cream has created a mild sensation4 ,he has visited ,wilton and ,longford1 where some of his works may be seen to-day2 he has enlarged his circle of friends1 while his acquaintances are as the sands upon the seashore for multitude4 ,he belongs to the once famous ,dilettanti ,society1 founded in #agcb to study antiquities and arts2 he has painted his own portrait to celebrate his election1 and presented it to the ,society4 ,it may be seen in the ,grafton ,gallery to-day1 together with two groups of members painted at a later date4 ,his drawing has become strong1 his modelling firm1 and his colour has many of the qualities that distinguished the ,venetian masters he loved so well1 but1 alas1 he has not learned the secrets of permanent colouring1 and some of his most brilliant glazes are beginning to fade before the eyes of the troubled owners of the pictures4 ,he has surrendered to the pseudo-classicism of his age1 and some of his compositions are absurdly indebted to mythology2 but the fault was a virtue then1 and while we complain it is only right to refer the grievance to the time rather than to the man1 and a study of ,boswell explains the painter's attitude1 even though it cannot justify it4 ,he has found time to enjoy the pursuits of a country gentleman2 he shoots and hunts in the best sporting circles4 ,his home in ,leicester ,square is open to all sorts and conditions of men2 the leading lights of the day--,gainsborough and ,romney excepted--are welcome4 ,he keeps a liberal but ill-served table1 and his friends will find a welcome if they call in time for dinner at five o'clock1 even if they must scramble for a fair share of the meal4 ,he has lost the raw manners of early years1 faux pas are few and far between4 ,from ,johnson he has acquired a certain literary style1 rather heavy and turgid1 perhaps1 but precise and final4 ,it is possible1 but not certain1 that ,the ,club has been established1 and that the twelve original members are meeting for supper at the sign of the ,turk's ,head in ,gerrard ,street4 ,he has pupils1 for whom he does little or nothing1 and assistants who paint draperies for him1 and receive a little useful instruction now and again4 ,northcote1 who is to publish his ,memoirs of ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds nearly half a century later1 and become the one successful painter from the ,leicester ,square establishment1 has met the great man in ,devonshire with emotions similar to those that ,reynolds felt in the far away days when1 an unknown pupil of ,hudson1 he saw the great and distinguished author of ,the ,rape of the ,lock in the centre of an admiring and respectful crowd4 ,who shall do justice to the crowds that thronged the studio8 ,certainly mere words cannot picture the scenes that the old house in ,leicester ,square witnessed in those stirring times4 ,deafness could hardly have been an unmixed evil to a man whose sitters were of the most diverse kind4 ,leslie and ,taylor in their voluminous work1 ,the ,life and ,times of ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 have written at length upon this aspect of the painter's daily life1 and have described the constant stream of men and women who could not have been placed side by side for five minutes save on the walls of the exhibition4 ,representatives of the most opposed school of politics1 ,high ,church dignitaries1 courtesans1 soldiers1 flaneurs1 society women1 sailors1 ambassadors1 actors1 children1 members of the ,royal ,family1 men from the street1 like ,white the paviour--one and all claimed the measure of immortality that his brush confers1 and if his best work could but have retained its qualities1 the latter half of the eighteenth century would be preserved for us in fashion calculated to make future generations envious4 ,unfortunately1 ,sir ,walter ,armstrong1 the painter's most trenchant latter day critic1 is justified when he writes3 ,speaking roughly1 ,sir ,joshua's early pictures darken1 the works of his middle period fade1 those of his late maturity crack4 ,the productions of his first youth and of his old age stand best of all4 ,when the worst has been said1 it is a glorious heritage that the painter left to his country1 but who can avoid regrets when thinking what it might have been if ,reynolds had mastered the secrets of permanent colour1 if the carmine and lake had endured1 and the more brilliant effects had not been so largely experimental--if he had given them a fair trial in studies before he used them for his best work8 ,perhaps his success left no time for experiments4 ,sitters were urgent and could not wait while the painter studied the question of the chemistry of pigments4 ,there is a curiously sane and optimistic note about all the ,reynolds portraits4 ,even where he does not succeed--in painting portrait groups1 for example--the fault is merely one of composition1 he keeps to his earliest intention of expressing what is best in the sitter1 and seeing him with dilated eye2 he is merely unable to set several figures upon the same canvas4 ,save for ever increasing deafness and a little trouble with sister ,frances1 who keeps house for him and is not cast in the same placid mould1 nothing occurs to disturb the even tenor of his happy life4 ,intellect rules emotions--either he has no feeling for intrigue or he can keep his emotions beyond the reach of prying eyes4 ,even his relations with ,angelica ,kaufmann1 now in her twenty-eighth year1 and an original member of the ,royal ,academy1 baffle the censors who would fain discover that she was the painter's mistress4 ,his heart has grown callous by contact with women1 says one of his contemporaries or biographers1 and this may well be so4 ,angelica ,kaufmann was one of the women who attract men1 and there is no evidence to show that ,reynolds was more than a good friend to her4 ,long years later1 when the visits to ,leicester ,square could have been no more than a memory1 she attracted ,goethe1 who used to read to her some of his unpublished work4 ,the painter's self-control has made some of his biographers angry2 they write as though fearful lest1 on account of his virtue1 there shall be no more cakes and ale1 and ginger shall no longer be hot in the mouth4 ,if they could but catch him tripping1 he might return to the highest place in their affections1 and all would be forgiven4 ,there is something so human in this attitude that it becomes almost tolerable1 though it is hard to avoid a smile when one finds that the subject of the relations between ,sir ,joshua and ,miss ,kaufmann have been discussed quite seriously by foreign writers4 ,if ,sir ,joshua could have made the lady a better artist1 if it can be shown that he saved her from being a worse one than she was1 there is something to write about2 the subject of their personal relations cannot possibly concern the world at large1 and is not worth a tithe of the ink that has been spilt in attack or defence4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,portrait ,,of ,,two ,,gentlemen4 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this picture was painted in #aggh and presented to the ,national ,gallery in #ahff by ,mrs4 ,plenge4 ,the gentleman on the right examining the prints and holding a violin in his right hand is one ,j4 ,c4 ,w4 ,bampfylde1 the one on the left is the ,rev4 ,george ,huddersford who was for some years a painter and a pupil of ,sir ,joshua4 ,,iii ,we owe an apology to the new ,president whom we left standing upon the threshold of the ,royal ,academy1 which opened its doors with a first exhibition of one hundred and thirty-six pictures6 ,the memory of this commendable modesty should not be allowed to fade in these days when canvas stretches by the acre over the long-suffering walls of ,burlington ,house1 when artists appear not singly but in battalions and the cry is still they come4 ,in ,april #agfi ,reynolds received the honour of knighthood and this seems to have put the finishing touches to his social claims4 ,henceforward he painted fewer portraits2 the records of #agga credit him with a mere seventy1 and though this figure may make modern men gasp1 it compares but feebly with the one hundred and eighty-four that stood to the credit of an earlier year4 ,the ,president increased the number of his clubs1 enlarged his dining circle1 became more and more dignified1 mellow1 gracious1 and urbane1 farther removed than before from the turmoil that was going on in art circles of the less successful men around him4 ,having all the cream he required1 he was not concerned with quarrels about skimmed milk4 ,some of his biographers think that ,romney was beginning to compete with the master1 and that this competition accounts for the diminishing number of his sitters1 but it is reasonable to suppose that a man who can make his own prices and is beyond the reach of want may regard seventy portraits as a very satisfactory output for one year1 when he has other duties to fulfil and is by temperament a lover of the world's good things4 ,fortune could have given him nothing more1 unless the hearing that passed in the old days of the pilgrimage to ,rome had been restored1 and if such a miracle could have been vouchsafed1 the painter's splendid indifference to matters that annoy quick1 nervous temperaments might have passed1 and the latter days might have been clouded4 ,if wisdom at one entrance was nearly shut out1 there was plenty left1 as may be gathered from a study of the ,discourses4 ,their vitality is proved by the fact that new editions are still called for1 and many members of the more modern schools of painting declare that ,reynolds saw some aspects of painting with twentieth-century eyes4 ,in #aggc ,plympton remembered its famous artist and elected him mayor1 an honour that touched him nearly4 ,one cannot help thinking that it was more to him even than the degree of ,doctor of ,civil ,law1 conferred in the same year by ,oxford ,university de honoris causa1 though this too helped him to paint his own portrait in flamboyant style1 and the artist loved colour4 ,one portrait of himself was sent to the town of ,plympton and hung between two pictures that were old masters according to the leading lights of the ,corporation4 ,in truth1 they were two of ,sir ,joshua's own early works1 and from this simple story we may learn that artists come and artists go1 but the mental calibre of corporations is constant and not subject to change4 ,he sent another picture of himself to the ,uffizzi ,gallery in ,florence1 where so many ,masters stand self-committed to canvas in pictures that do not err upon the side of making the sitters lack distinction4 ,the next eight years were uneventful1 save for the fact that the ,president was doing some of his best work and enjoying life in the fullest and most complete fashion imaginable4 ,nearly all who knew him loved him1 and to the great majority of men and women he was just and kind4 ,for a man so completely free from emotion and self-revelation1 ,reynolds claimed a very large circle of intimates1 and it was hardly an age of introspection4 ,men confessed themselves to their ,maker but not to their friends2 the formalities of life and speech presented an effective barrier to the emotions1 even the stage was as artificial and pompous as it could be4 ,one may perhaps acknowledge an uneasy feeling that ,david ,garrick himself would make a very small impression upon a latter-day audience1 if he confronted it with the mid-eighteenth-century style of speech and action4 ,in #aghj the ,academy ,exhibition was transferred from ,pall ,mall to ,somerset ,house1 where it was destined to remain until #ahch1 the year of its removal to the ,national ,gallery1 where it stayed thirty-one years on the way to ,burlington ,house4 ,among the portraits painted by the ,president in that year was one of ,general ,oglethorpe1 who1 according to the ,table ,talk of ,samuel ,rogers 7quoted by ,sir ,walter ,armstrong71 could tell of the days when he had shot snipe in ,conduit ,street4 ,in the following year ,reynolds painted the wonderful picture of the ,ladies ,horatia1 ,laura1 and ,maria ,waldegrave1 one of the few groups whose arrangement is beyond cavil4 ,few will look in vain to that picture for any of the finest qualities of ,sir ,joshua's art4 ,he had very little to learn1 though in the summer and autumn of #agha he visited the ,low ,countries1 staying in ,bruges1 ,brussels1 ,the ,hague1 ,amsterdam1 and other cities1 and showing himself strangely indifferent to the pictures of ,franz ,hals1 though these might have been presumed to appeal to any portrait painter4 ,his records and impressions of the journey were set down most carefully1 and are preserved2 they show that success had not impaired discernment1 and that the painter was responsive to most of the thoughts that stir educated visitors to the ,dutch galleries to-day4 ,in #aghb1 the year in which ,romney painted his first picture of ,mistress ,hart1 afterwards ,lady ,emma ,hamilton1 ,reynolds sat to his great rival ,gainsborough1 now at the height of his fame and in the last years of his life2 the two men disliked each other1 and the picture was never completed4 ,some say that ,reynolds made a hasty remark about his fixed determination not to paint ,gainsborough's portrait in return1 and some mischief-maker carried the words to ,gainsborough4 ,others think that the touch of palsy or slight attack of paralysis that came to ,sir ,joshua about the time of the sitting1 brought it to a close4 ,there must be more than this underlying the true story of the affair1 for though a visit to ,brighton and to ,bath restored the ,president's health1 the sittings were not resumed1 even when ,reynolds wrote to say he was ready to sit again4 ,in #aghc ,sir ,joshua sent ten portraits to the ,academy1 while ,gainsborough1 exhibiting there for the last time1 sent twenty-five pictures1 including the famous panels of ,george ,,iii41 and his children1 now in ,windsor4 ,but ,reynolds added to his fame in this year1 for he painted the portrait of ,mrs4 ,siddons as the ,tragic ,muse4 ,then he paid another visit to the ,low ,countries1 to find with regret that ,rubens' appeal was failing4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,portrait ,,of ,,lady ,,and ,,child4 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this portrait was purchased in #ahga with the ,peel collection and is said to represent the ,hon4 ,mrs4 ,musters and her son4 ,the composition does not show ,sir ,joshua at his best1 and the painting is perhaps rather thin4 ,the identity is not very clearly established1 although the names of ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,musters are to be found in ,sir ,joshua's account books4 ,in the following year1 #aghd1 ,sir ,joshua sent sixteen pictures to the ,academy1 including the famous ,mrs4 ,siddons1 ,charles ,james ,fox1 and ,mrs4 ,abingdon as ,roxalana4 ,gainsborough had quarrelled with the ,r4,a4 and exhibited no more1 though he lived until #aghh4 ,with ,december1 ,dr4 ,johnson's strenuous and useful life came to an end2 he passed away exhorting his old friend never to paint on ,sunday1 and to read the ,bible4 ,reynolds has left a very interesting study of the ,doctor's character4 ,in the following year1 the ,president went for the third time to the ,low ,countries1 and bought a number of pictures2 he also received the honour of a commission from ,catherine1 ,empress of ,russia1 and painted the beautiful picture of the ,duchess of ,devonshire and her baby that hangs at ,chatsworth to-day4 ,walpole said1 it is little like1 and not good1 but posterity has declined to accept the verdict4 ,sir ,walter ,armstrong considers that it ranks with the ,lady ,crosbie and ,nelly ,o',brien as the most entirely successful creations of the artist4 ,in '#hg the ,president sent thirteen pictures to the ,academy1 including the ,angel's ,heads now in the ,national ,gallery4 ,they are studies of ,frances ,isabella ,gordon1 daughter of ,lord ,william ,gordon1 and the picture was given to the ,gallery in #ahda4 ,a year later1 ,london saw the picture that the ,empress ,catherine had commissioned1 the subject is ,the ,infant ,hercules and the canvas hangs in the ,hermitage ,gallery at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,it is one of the artist's failures1 and he received fifteen hundred guineas for it4 ,this is the date of the famous ,marlborough family group that is to be seen at ,blenheim4 ,a year later1 when the ,president sent some dozen pictures to the ,r4,a41 his activity came to a sudden end4 ,some forty years and more had passed since he painted the first of his works that concerns us1 and he had not known an idle season4 ,his record would have brought honour to any three men2 he had lived as a philosopher should1 grateful for the gifts of the gods1 and not abusing any4 ,suddenly1 in mid-,july of #aghi1 about the time of the fall of the ,bastille1 one eye failed him as he worked at his easel2 he laid his brush aside4 ,all things have an end--,i have come to mine1 he remarked1 with the quiet courage that never deserted him1 and he spent what remained to him of life making gradual preparation for the last day1 sustained by memories of the past through hours that were not always free from pain and distress4 ,save for a quarrel with the ,academy1 arising out of the contest for membership between ,bonomi and ,fuseli1 there was nothing to disturb the closing years of the old painter's public life1 and even in this quarrel1 he was the victor4 ,the ,general ,assembly apologised1 and ,reynolds withdrew his resignation1 though ,chambers1 now ,sir ,william1 was obliged to act for him at ,somerset ,house4 ,in ,december of #agij ,reynolds delivered his final address to the students1 the name of ,michelangelo being last upon his lips4 ,little more than a year before he died1 the ,president sat to the ,swedish artist von ,breda1 for a picture now in the ,stockholm ,academy4 ,west did his presidential work for him in the last months of his life4 ,many friends testify to the tranquillity of these last days1 though failing sight and the deprivation of the liberal diet to which he was accustomed had lowered the spirits that were once bright as well as serene4 ,perhaps modern medical science would have availed to lengthen his life1 and make the last few years more worth living2 but in the eighteenth century one needed a very sturdy constitution to endure the combined attack of a disease and a doctor4 ,sir ,joshua was in his sixty-ninth year--he had lived in the fullest sense all the time--and when one evening in ,february #agib ,death came to the ,house in ,leicester ,square1 his visit was quite expected1 and was met with a tranquil mind4 ,the body lay in state awhile in the ,royal ,academy1 and was then taken to ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral1 and laid by the side of ,sir ,christopher ,wren4 ,to-day we look at the artist's work with a critical eye--he can no longer thrive by comparison with contemporaries1 but must compete with all dead masters of portraiture2 and it will be admitted on every side that he holds his own1 that before every throne of judgment his best works will plead for him and vindicate the admiration of his countrymen4 ,it is not the least of his claims to high consideration that his art moved steadily forward1 that the last work was the best4 ,,iv ,naturally it is impossible within the limits of a small and unpretentious monograph to give an adequate idea of the range and variety of the labours that occupied ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds for half a century or more1 and no attempt will be made in this place to do more than indicate the forces that seem to have directed his brush1 the masters whose labour inspired it4 ,it has been pointed out in these pages that ,reynolds was a great assimilator4 ,he took from everybody1 but he was always judicious1 because1 quite apart from his executive faculties1 he had a critical gift of the first order4 ,one has but to turn to his diaries to realise that his instinct was singularly sound4 ,he could stand before an admitted masterpiece and enjoy all its beauties1 without losing sight of any defect however small1 and because his mind was beautifully balanced1 the small points of objection did not spoil his appreciation of the whole work4 ,they simply taught him what he should avoid4 ,in the very early days of his career1 before he had left ,devonshire1 he made the acquaintance of one ,gandy1 an artist of some small repute1 whose father1 also a painter1 had studied ,van ,dyck1 and had taught his son to appreciate the fine qualities of ,rembrandt4 ,the younger ,gandy afforded ,reynolds his first glimpse of the world lying beyond the reach of the rank and file of ,british students1 gave him his earliest appreciation of ,rembrandt1 and taught him to look for that master's work when he visited ,rome4 ,as soon as ,reynolds reached ,italy1 he examined the great masters with a critical eye1 and set himself to copy ,titian1 ,rubens1 ,rembrandt1 ,guido1 ,raphael1 and many others4 ,he soon saw that each of these masters had achieved supreme success in some department of their life's work1 and he had the idea of uniting all the excellences that he saw around him1 and leaving the defects alone4 ,he sought for the colour of ,rubens and ,titian the drawing of ,raphael1 the splendour of design of ,michelangelo1 and the chiaroscuro of ,rembrandt4 ,naturally this must sound ambitious enough2 but we should remember that ,reynolds was far from standing alone in his ambitions4 ,mengs1 who did so much to proclaim the merits of ,velazquez and achieved a great but temporary success as a painter in ,madrid before ,goya's wonderful gifts threw him into well-merited obscurity1 had the same ideals1 but whereas the best of his accomplishments were but dull and short-lived1 ,reynolds was able to force some way through all the gifts with which he sought to surround himself and to reach a style of his own4 ,the journey lasted very many years1 and the road is strewn with failures1 chiefly due to an inability to grasp the secret of a durable glaze and1 like many men who came before and after him1 the painter had to part company with some at least of his ambitions4 ,had his own capacity for self-criticism been less1 had he allowed his feeling for fine colour to prevail over the sound judgment that bade him look for other and more enduring excellencies1 he would not occupy the place he holds to-day1 while on the other hand1 if a ,titian or a ,rubens had been able to give him the secret of manipulating pigments1 he would have stood side by side with the greatest masters of all time4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,duchess ,,of ,,devonshire ,,and ,,child4 7,chatsworth ,house1 ,derbyshire7 ,this picture1 to which reference has been made in the text1 hangs at ,chatsworth1 and has been reproduced by permission of ,his ,grace the ,duke of ,devonshire4 ,although ,walpole sneered at it when he saw it for the first time1 the composition stands to-day among the most admired of the master's works4 ,artists tell us that painting should be no more than a harmony of colour and line1 that it should not attempt to cross the borderline that separates painting from literature4 ,they are justified in their attitude1 but at the same time we cannot discuss painters in terms of paint1 or tell of our admiration of their work by expressing that admiration on canvas4 ,those of us who are not painters1 can only approach art through literature1 and seek to find in a man the explanation of his works1 and in the works1 the revelation of the man4 ,joshua ,reynolds possessed a master mind4 ,he had wonderful capacity for synthesis and analysis1 and something akin to the skilled physician's gift of diagnosis4 ,as soon as he had built up the foundations of his own art and found a new method of presentation1 he turned all his mental capacity to the study of the people who sat for him4 ,as soon as he had achieved technique1 the other gifts that no technique could develop came into play1 and then his work revealed its extraordinary qualities1 side by side with the few limitations that beset his mode of life4 ,in society1 ,reynolds would seem to have been courtly and reserved4 ,he did not expand to women as he did to men1 for he looked upon women and children as subjects for classical treatment4 ,he made them extremely beautiful2 he gave them graces and gifts that flatter the imagination of those who gaze upon his pictures to-day3 but there are not too many portraits of women among those painted by ,reynolds in which there is a large quality of humanity4 ,he suppresses a great part of the human interest that may have been in them1 and replaces it with beauty of colour and line4 ,now and again1 of course1 he is very fortunate4 ,when he painted the great courtesans of his day1 ,polly ,fisher1 ,nelly ,o',brien1 and others of that frail sisterhood1 the qualities he omitted left the sitters quite human4 ,there was no suggestion of the classic about them4 ,a ,nelly ,o',brien at her best is just a woman1 while some of the high-born ladies at their best became a little too cold1 a little too stately1 a little too well-posed for the wicked world they lived in4 ,even when we consider the famous ,jumping ,baby that hangs at ,chatsworth1 it is impossible to avoid the thought that if the little one had really been so happy and so playful1 the mother's fine feathers must have been considerably ruffled1 and she must have made haste to give the child back to the nurse4 ,his children1 too1 are seldom of this world4 ,reynolds was a hardened old bachelor with an eye for beauty4 ,he had not studied ,bellini and ,correggio for nothing1 and many of his little ones are far more like ,italian angels in modern dress than ,english boys and girls4 ,of course there are notable exceptions4 ,master ,crewe as ,henry the ,eighth is delightfully ,english4 ,the ,strawberry ,girl is another picture painted in hours of delightful inspiration1 but ,the ,age of ,innocence1 for all its supreme beauty1 has a certain quality of conception that is artificial4 ,to look at ,reynolds' women and children is to feel assured that the painter lived a celibate life1 and that the stories about intrigues with ,angelica ,kaufmann and others are misleading and unfounded4 ,we have but to turn to the work of his great contemporaries1 ,gainsborough and ,romney1 to see the difference between women in whose veins the blood runs red1 and women who feed on nectar and ambrosia and were never seen at a disadvantage in their lives4 ,it seems to the writer that women and children were to ,reynolds fit and proper subjects for the exercise of his gifts1 but at the same time1 folk in whom he had no abiding interest4 ,men interested him1 and when he turned the best of his attention to them1 he gave the world work that will endure just as long as the pigments he put down upon the canvas4 ,the picture of ,admiral ,keppel1 hanging to-day in the ,national ,portrait ,gallery1 was the first ripe fruit of the painter's ,italian journey1 and had produced in the world of art something akin to a sensation4 ,thereafter ,reynolds stood alone as the representative eighteenth-century painter of great men4 ,his rivals could not approach him there4 ,he seemed to see right into the heart and brain of the men who sat for him1 to realise clearly and judiciously the part they were playing in life1 and he strove to set it down in such a fashion that the character and capacities of the sitter should impress themselves at once upon those who saw the portrait4 ,other painters might give one aspect of a man1 but ,reynolds' vision was far larger--it was completely comprehensive2 when he had dealt with a subject1 it was well-nigh impossible to approach it again1 save in the way of imitation4 ,there was a finality about the treatment that must have baffled and exasperated his rivals4 ,the portraits of ,charles ,james ,fox1 ,david ,garrick1 ,laurence ,sterne1 to name a few1 are masterly in their simplicity1 in the directness of their appeal1 and in the splendid expression of character through features4 ,to satisfy the claims of ,reynolds' brush it was absolutely necessary that his sitters should have character1 even if it was a bad one4 ,that is why the portraits of courtesans arouse attention in fashion that women whose characters were undeveloped either for good or for evil will never succeed in doing4 ,it is not always easy to realise what ,reynolds' work was like at its best1 because so many of his canvases have either lost their original tints or have suffered the final indignity of restoration4 ,in his search after the secret of the ,venetians he made many elaborate experiments at the expense of his sitters1 and pictures that were remarkable in their year for colour that aroused the enthusiasm of connoisseurs grew old even sooner than the sitters4 ,his solid foundations decomposed1 the surface colour of many a celebrity is now as pale as the sitter's own ghost may be supposed to be4 ,here there is perhaps some excuse for looking at ,reynolds' work from the literary standpoint1 because though the harmony of line may remain1 the harmony of colour has gone beyond recall1 and there are some at least of ,reynolds' pictures in which the colour1 had it been preserved1 would have been the most effective quality4 ,at times the great artist's draughtsmanship was far removed from excellence4 ,and yet when criticism has said its last word1 the name and fame of ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds will remain the pride of ,british art and the admiration of the civilised world4 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,dalziel1 ,,ltd41 ,watford ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh