BBS 



Y N O L D S. 



Reynolds, able to execute the numerous orders which he received. 

 Sir Joshua. His historical pictures were in particular request, and 

 it is fortunate for the art that he had leisure to execute 

 no many of this description. 



The Literary Club, established in 1764, and compre- 

 hending the leading men of genius of that time, was or- 

 ganised principally by Reynolds. His literary habits 

 were thus strengthened by his constant association with 

 professional authors, and from his connexion with Dr. 

 Johnson, he was led to compose three essays to the Id- 

 ler, viz. No. 76, on False Criticisms in Painting ; No, 

 79, on the Grand Style of Painting ; and No. 82, on the 

 True Idea of Beauty. 



The Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and 

 Architecture, having been established in 176'8, Mr. 

 Reynolds was appointed its first president, and, to add 

 to the dignity of the institution, as well as to mark the 

 royal opinion of Mr. Reynolds's merits, the king con- 

 ferred upon him the honour of knighthood. At the 

 opening of the academy, on the 2d of January 17t>9, 

 Sir Joshua delivered his first discourse, which was uni- 

 versally admired, and at the distribution of the prizes 

 which took place in each succeeding year, he delivered 

 to the students a discourse on some branch of the art. 



During the summer of 1781, Sir Joshua made a tour 

 through Holland and the Netherlands, in order to ex- 

 amine the celebrated works of the Dutch and Flemish 

 artists. Here he studied with a critical eye the paint- 

 ings in the churches and collections in Amsterdam, Ant- 

 werp, Brussels, Ghent, and Dusseldorf, and he has pre- 

 served his opinions of these pictures in an account of 

 his journey, which was published after his death, and 

 which terminates with a masterly drawn character of 

 Rubens. 



In 1783, when the Emperor Joseph exposed to sale 

 the pictures belonging to several of the monasteries and 

 religious houses in Flanders, Sir Joshua again visited 

 that country, and he expended above jBlOOO on the 

 purchase of some of the most interesting. He is said 

 to have observed upon his return, that his own pictures, 

 when compared- with those he had purchased, wanted 

 force and brilliancy. 



On the death of Allan Ramsay, in 1 784, Sir Joshua 

 was made principal painter in ordinary to his majesty, 

 a situation which he held till the time of his death. 



Hitherto our author had enjoyed equal health, with 

 the exception of a slight paralytic stroke which he ex- 

 perienced in 1782, and which left behind it no disagree- 

 able effects. In July 1789, however, when Lady Beau- 

 dhamp was sitting for her portrait, he was unable to 

 proceed with the picture from his loss of sight, and, 

 notwithstanding the exertions of his medical attend- 

 ants, he became in a few months blind in his left eye. 

 Having been so deaf as to be obliged to use an ear- 

 trumpet ever since his return from Italy, he began to 

 be alarmed lest he should be afflicted with the two 

 greatest calamities to which the human frame is subject, 

 the loss of hearing and the loss of sight. He therefore 

 resolved to save his remaining eye by giving up his 

 labours as an artist, and though he was thus made de- 

 pendent on a new set of habits, he retained his spirits 

 and partook of the conversation of his friends with his 

 usual cheerfulness. This state of enjoyment, however, 

 did not long continue. Some discussion which about 

 this time took place in the academy disturbed his tran- 

 quillity and added to the infirmities of his decaying 

 frame. In 1790, when the professorship of perspective 

 had become vacant, Sir Joshua was extremely desirous 

 of having it filled by Joseph Bonomi, a celebrated Ita- 

 lian architect. Bonomi, however, was onlv an associate 



of the academy, so that it became necessary to elect K*ynolds, 



him an academician. Mr. Gilpin was the other candi- s 'r Joshua. 



date on this occasion. When the ballot took place the 



votes were equally divided, and Sir Joshua gave his cast- 



ingvotein favour of his friend. On a subsequent occasion 



when an academic seat was vacant, Sir Joshua exerted 



all his influence to procure it for Bonomi ; but when 



he found that he was outvoted by two to one, he left 



the chair with great dissatisfaction and resigned next 



day. He was afterwards, however, prevailed upon to 



resume his dignity. 



An inflamed tumour that had grown above the eye 

 which he had lost made him unreasonably apprehen- 

 sive of the loss of the other ; and from that time his 

 spirits failed, and a settled despondency took possession 

 of his mind. This effect, however, was partly owing 

 to another disease, which wap secretly undermining 

 his frame, and the nature and the seat of which he was 

 unable to point out. This illness was therefore attri- 

 buted to a wrong cause, and his physicians, with that 

 want of generosity which, in such cases only charac- 

 terizes their profession, were more willing to brand 

 their patient with the name of hypochondriac than 

 own their ignorance of a disease which was seated be- 

 yond their penetration. About a fortnight previous to 

 his death it was discovered that his liver had enlarged 

 itself beyond its ordinary size, and had impeded the 

 exercise of all his vital functions. After being confin- 

 ed to his room for three months, he died at his hous 

 in Leicester Square, on the 23d of February, 1792, at 

 the advanced age of sixty-nine. His funeral was at- 

 tended by a number of very distinguished individuals, 

 and his pall was supported by three dukes, two mar- 

 quises, and other five noblemen. His remains were 

 deposited in the crypt of St. Paul's, near those of Sir 

 Christopher Wren. 



Sir Joshua Reynolds was rather below the middle 

 size, of a ruddy complexion, and somewhat inclined to 

 corpulency. He has left behind him excellent pictures 

 of himself at different periods of his life. 



The unclaimed and unfinished works of Sir Joshua, 

 along with his vast collection of pictures, drawings, 

 engravings, casts, and statues, were sold by auction, 

 and brought nearly L.I 7,000. His whole property 

 amounted to L.80,000. The following character of 

 this great artist is from the masterly hand of Mr. 

 Burke : 



" His illness was long, but borne with a mild and 

 cheerful fortitude, without the least mixture of any 

 thing irritable or querulous, agreeably to the placid 

 and even tenor of his whole life. 



He had, from the beginning of his malady, a dis- 

 tinct view of his dissolution ; which he contemplated 

 with that entire composure which nothing but the in- 

 nocence, integrity, and usefulness of his life, and an 

 unaffected submission to the will of providence, could 

 bestow. In this situation he had every consolation 

 from family tenderness which his tenderness to his fa- 

 mily merited. 



Sir Joshua Reynolds was, on very many accounts, 

 one of the most memorable men of his time. He was 

 the first Englishman who added the praise of the ele- 

 gant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, 

 in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the 

 richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to 

 the great masters of the renowned ages. In portrait 

 he went beyond them ; for he communicated to that 

 description of the art in which English artists are the 

 most engaged, a variety, a fancy, and a dignity, deriv- 

 ed from the higher branches, which even those irho 



