Joshua Reynolds facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sir Joshua Reynolds
Self-portrait 1776
Nationality	English

Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769.

Life

Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School in the town. His father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university.

Lord Keppel 1779

One of his sisters was Mary Palmer (1716–1794), seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, whose fondness for drawing is said to have had much influence on him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshua's apprenticeship, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy.

Reynolds died on 23 February 1792 at his house in Leicester Fields in London. Reynolds was buried at St Paul's Cathedral. In 1903, a statue, by Alfred Drury, was erected in his honour in Annenberg Courtyard of Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy. Around the statue are fountains and lights, installed in 2000, arranged in the pattern of a star chart at midnight on the night of Reynolds' birth.

Images for kids

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  Self-portrait, aged about 24

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  Old Grammar School, Plympton, founded 1658, built 1664, attended by Joshua Reynolds whose father was headmaster

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  The Cottagers (1788)

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  The Age of Innocence (c. 1788). Reynolds emphasized the natural grace of children in his paintings.

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  The hall at Loton Park, c. 1870. Showing, in situ, on the far wall Reynolds' Frances Anne Crewe (Miss Greville), as St. Genevieve (c. 1773)

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  Reynolds's 'Mrs Sheridan in the character of St Cecilia' was considered by the artist's nephew as a 'sight worth coming to Devonshire to see, I cannot suppose that there was ever a greater Beauty in the world, nor even Helen or Cleopatra could have exceeded her', 1775, Waddesdon Manor

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  Lord Heathfield (1787)

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  The Ladies Waldegrave (1780)

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  The Thames from Richmond Hill (1788)

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  Huang Ya Dong 'Wang-Y-Tong' (1776)

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  Self-portrait (1788)

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  Self Portrait

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  Colonel Tarleton

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  Miss Bowles

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  Miss Crewe

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  Boy with Grapes, Cincinnati Museum

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  Master Crewe

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  Commodore the Honourable August Keppel (1749), Reynolds's first portrait of Keppel

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  Captain the Honourable Augustus Keppel in the pose of the Apollo Belvedere (1753)

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  Edward Cornwallis (1756)

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  Portrait of Miss Mary Pelham (ca. 1757), Dallas Museum of Art

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  Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (1758)

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  Francis Reynolds-Moreton (Royal Navy officer) (1758)

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  James, 7th Earl of Lauderdale (1759-1760), Art Gallery of New South Wales

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  Kitty Fisher and Parrott (1763–64)

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  Mrs Abington as The Comic Muse (1764–1768), at Waddesdon Manor

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  George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (1764)

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  Richard Crofts of West Harling, Norfolk (1765)

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  George Clive and his family with an Indian maid (1765)

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  John Julius Angerstein (1765)

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  Elizabeth, Lady Amherst (1767)

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  Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, The Archers (1769)

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  Portrait of Elizabeth Kerr (c. 1769)

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  Lord Frederick Howard, 5th Earl Carlisle (1769)

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  Lady Christian Acland (1771)

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  Anne Seymour Damer (1773)

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  Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons (1773–1775)

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  The Infant Samuel (1776)

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  Omai (1776)

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  Sarah Campbell (1777)

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  Lady Caroline Howard (1778)

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  Jane, Countess of Harrington (1778)

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  The Family of the Duke of Marlborough (1778)

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  Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children (1779)

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  Captain George K. H. Coussmaker (1782)

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  Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington (1782)

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  Admiral Hood (1783)

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  Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse (1789), The Huntington Library, San Marino, California

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  Heads of Angels - Miss Frances (Gordon)

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  The Strawberry Girl