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Galleries » British Paintings 1500-1850 » Sir Joshua Reynolds
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Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was one of the greatest
English portrait painters of his day, alongside Gainsborough, and possibly the most
important painter in the history of English painting. He was also a great writer and
diarist, and the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He was born at
Plympton in Devon, the son of a clergyman, and he was raised in an environment of
learning. He studied painting under Thomas Hudson from 1740-1743, but setup in Devon as a
portrait painter before he finished this apprenticeship. He travelled to Italy to study
the old master painters. On returning to England, Reynolds quickly achieved a leading
position in his profession. He had 150 sitters a year by 1758, and achieved success
through hard work and careful business management. He was knighted in 1769, and painted
for another twenty productive years, at which point he became blind and died several years
later. His finest pictures are amongst the greatest English portraits ever executed. His
work is in numerous public collections and with the families living in many English
stately homes where he painted their descendants.
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