JOSHUA REYNOLDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1937, Page 4

JOSHUA REYNOLDS

HIS RISE TO FORTUNE THE FIRST ARTIST-KNIGHT GENIUS AS PAINTER One day in-. 1760' there was much excitement in Leicester Fields, now known as Leicester Square, when the new coach of Mr. Joshua Reynolds, the painter, first drew up at his door, writes T. W. Earp in the "Daily Telegraph." It was one of the most magnificent coaches in London. Pictures of the Four Seasons were painted on the panels, the woodwork shone with lavish gilt, and the coachman and his attendant on the box were decked in silver livery. His sister complained that it was too showy. "What?" said the painter. "Would you have one like an apothecary's carriage?" And, indeed, only a happy chance had prevented the future Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.,' from being an apothecary. Born at Plympton.in Devon on July 16, 1723, Reynolds was the son of a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, who was headmaster of the town grammar school. With scanty means, and the cares ,cf a large family, the Rev. Samuel Reynolds hesitated whether Joshua should take to chemistry or art for a living. A chemist's shop would mean security, while to embark as an artist was to challenge fate. But the boy had a natural gift for drawing and painting, and a few local worthies had admired his', early.-efforts in that direction. The risk was taken. With a hard-found £120, at the age of seventeen, he became apprentice in London, for four years, to Thomas Hudson, the best-known portrait painter .of/the day. ,>For :some unknown reason, he servea only two years of his term, though he acquired his master's faculty for turning out "wooden" effigies in the manner of Lely and Kneller, with something of his own in addition that was a little nearer nature. Returning to Devon, he1 might have settled down to the life of a provincial portraitist in Plymouth, had not his friend and patron, Commodore Keppel, carried him off: on a voyage to the Mediterranean in 1749. He left ship at Leghorn to spend three years in Italy that were to make him a master of his craft. CONQUEST OF LONDON. When'" he had emptied the purse filled by " his ■■ Devon earnings, he turned home, but stayed only a short time at Plymouth. He felt ready now to conquer London, and ho set up a studio in St. Martin's Lane. - Soon it was known that a young painter .was accomplishing a .revolution in his. aft; representing his citters as human beingslnstead. of Dutch dolls. "•'- His, old master,. Hudson, came to investigate. "Reynolds," he said, "you do not paint as well as you did before you went to Italy." The people who wanted to be painted thought otherwise. Reynolds moved to better quarters in... Great,. Newport Street. There he asked; arid/got, Hudson's own prices: 12 .-guineas for.: the head, ,48 for the figure.- ,\ .".. ~ Clients flowed in, Lord Holderncsse, "the Home Secretary, one of the fi rs t to lead ■ 'the1-. v>ay, arid bringing most of ■the Cabinet 'after, him. Royalty followed'iw the person'of Princ^. George, afterwards Gebi'ge/IV, and then came fashion,; headed'--b vy'the Duke and Buche.ss of-Ancaster, .the ; Duke and Hachessf ■•■•:;bi-<>ißucele'ucr4V . and, the Diicliesses '■ of ,;sancV Norfolk. In. 1755 Reynolds had 120 sitters, who rose to a steady average of 150, and in'one'single year reached 184. ■■' The?great career was on'its way., in 1760 -Reynolds took No. 47 Leicester Fields;; paying £1650 for a iorty-scven-j years": lease, and spending £1500 on' pitting;in.a studio and gallery. Then the wonderful coach was bought, the I volatile token of an income of £6000 a year. ■ No. 47 was Reynolds's home.for thirty, years. His life there was one of continuous activity, though without lively incident. Fame and the number of sitters went on mounting. He had become a confirmed Londoner, but sometimes he stayed a short while in I a country'house, such as Blenheim, to paint a noble family., or he would take a trip to Paris .or to the Low Countries to look at pictures and buy them. Occasionally he revisited his native town, which, though it. could not persuade him to be its M.P., one year made him itsj'Mayor. WHEN EYESIGHT FAILED. He deqlai-ed that that honour de* lighted-.him even more than those he received from his King and his fellowartists. In 1769 the Royal Academy was founded under the patronage of George ni, who, with its members' ac-clamation,'-nominated Reynolds as its president. 'There-was a- sequel on April 21, 1770; \ He finished Miss Norcliffe's morning sitting for her portrait at half-past twelve, and drove to St. James's Palace. ' When he returned at two o'clock to start work on Mr. Simons, he was the "Sir Joshua' of history, the first English artist-knight. Except for a short gap when he resigned over a not very important dispute on procedure,' to be recalled by I petition of his fellow-Academicians, he retained the office of P.R.A. until he died It gave him much to do; there were his famous lectures to the students to prepare and artists' quarrels to settle. The post was no sinecure. Two R.A.s, moved as much by envy as righteous indignation, attacked him—Mr. Hone in a caricature and Mr. Barry in a pamphlet-for using his official power to force painting in the Italian style upon the Academy. With such distractions the number of his sitters declined to 60 a year, in 1772 onwards. But his art was the better for it, and his fortune was assured, for his prices had risen to 50 guineas for the heart and 250 for the' figure, which was chiefly in demand.' > Then, in July, 1789,. while he was painting eitner Lady Beauchamp or Miss ;Russell—it is uncertain which—the sight of his left eye suddenly failed. Though he struggled with a few more portraits his painting days were at an end. On' February 23, 1792, he died. At the King's command he was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's, by the side.of Sir Christopher Wren. LIFE WITHOUT ROMANCE. No romance quickened the even rhythm of his private.life. For a little while he. was said to be exceptionally attentive to Miss Angelica Kauft'man, an attractive fellow R.A. In his old age, like many famous men of the time, he flirted lightly with Fanny Burney. But it was his gift for friendship that still makes the name "Sir Joshua" stand for geniality and good company. Dr. Johnson, whom he met in 1753, said,'."Sir Joshua possesses the largest share of inoflensiveness of any man I know." Later he wrote to Reynolds, "Perhaps few people have lived so long and so much together with less cause of complaint on either side." And Reynolds had written of him, "He may be said to have formed my mind, and to have brushed away from it a good deal of rubbish." As the Doctor died he made Reynolds promise not to paint on Sundays, a pledge faithfully kept. And Sir Joshua, who had lost one battle with the Dean and Chapter of . St. Paul's when they refused to allow him to paint mural decorations there, won a

second when he brought pressure on them to admit a statue of his old friend in (he cathedral—the first piece of sculpture to be placed in it. Reynolds was also warmly allieri with the Doctor's circle. Goldsmith's last verses, with their reference to the deafness, were in praise of him: "When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios and stuff, He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff, By flattery unspoiled — '—" Death left the line unfinished. Politically a Whig, which makes his connection with the Tory Doctor the more a credit to them both, he was a close friend, tod, of Sheridan, Fox, and the tempestuous Wilkes, even risking a secret visit to the latter when he was in hiding, in peril of his life, at Teddington. He was a member of many dining-clubs and himself a giver of excellent dinners. , The theatre delighted him, and he was a good shot in the country. Snuff counts as his only vice; the Duchess of Marlborough rebuked him for ruining her carpets with it.-' A BACHELOR HOUSEHOLD. He could always rely on a sister or a niece to administer his bachelor household. The annals of No. 47 are a record of hard work and hospitality, and it was curious only as an aviary. It contained a golden eagle, used in classical subjects; a macaw, to add a note of colour, as in the Countess of Derby's portrait; a sparrow, which perched on Sir Joshua's head as he w ked; and h's niece Offy's canary. She told Goldsmith, then compiling a natural history, that it had turned black after dying of fright, and Goldsmith proposed to use the information. "Sir, if you do," said Dr. Johnson, "you'll ruin your work, for depend upon it, it's a lie." Sometimes a sitter of exceptional importance caused a stir in the house. When Mrs. Siddons came, Mrs. Thrale brought a party to watch the work progressing, and unkindly dubbed the great' actress "a leaden goddess." Lord Mansfield, the formidable judge, startled the painter, who asked if he thought his portrait a likeness. "I cannot tell," was the reply, "for I have not seen my own face for thirty years. My servant always dresses me and puts on my wig, and so it is quite unnecessary ■ for me to look in the glass." English .history of his time, in the form of its chief figures, sat for posterity in Sir Joshua's painting chair. At the end of his labours the son of (he poor Devon schoolmaster left to his niece! Miss Palmer, afterwards the Marchioness of Thomond, the bulk of a fortune which, after the sale of his collection of pictures, amounted to £80,000. To Burke, his executor, he, bequeathed £2000, and cancelled the bond of a loan to the same amount. ' Industry, but not parsimony, had gathered this wealth, and he had served his art as well as it had served him. Where his predecessors portrayed men and women as wood, he portrayed them as flesh and blood. The name of "Sir Joshua" still lives, as that. of. the painter, the friend, and the typical Englishman of his.day. y