Artist Sir Joshua Reynolds

"Sir Joshua Reynolds is perhaps the best-known portrait painter of the English School and was the founding President of the Royal Academy. He was born in Plympton, Devon, in 1732. His father, Reverend Samuel Reynolds, was Master of Plympton Grammar School and this is where Joshua Reynolds was educated. At the age of 18, he went to London to study with Thomas Hudson, who was a fashionable painter of the day. Reynolds's enthusiastic search for artistic greatness led him to Rome, Florence and Venice, where he relied on portrait painting for financial assistance. Upon his return to London in 1752, he moved to Leicester Square and shortly afterwards became a member of the St. Martin's Lane Academy. He soon acquired a leading position within his profession and was painting as many as 150 sitters in a single year. Reynolds’s success was so great and his manner so acceptable that he moved in the highest circles and thus elevated the status of the artist in Britain to new heights. When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, he was the obvious choice to be the first President and his annual Discourses to students were later published and were to influence artists well into the next century. Reynolds died in 1792."

 
Page 1 of 1
 

1
 
Page 1 of 1
 

1

Products per page: 12 24 48 100

Subscribe to our newsletter.