REYNOLDS. 35 
demy of Sciences at Paris admitted some new members, 
under the designation of [“ free associates;” father Reyneau 
was of that number, and he frequently assisted at their meet¬ 
ings. He died in 1723, at the age of 72, regretted as well 
for his many virtues, as for profound and extensive learn¬ 
ing. The first men in France for talents deemed it an 
honour to count Reyneau among their friends. In this 
number was father Malebranche, of whom Reyneau was a 
zealous disciple. He left behind him a treatise on “ Logic, 
or the Art of Reasoning,” which was published in 1745. 
Moreri. 
REYNOLDS (Sir Joshua, Knt.), was the son of the Rev. 
Samuel Reynolds, rector of Plynlpton, near Plymouth, in 
Devonshire, and was born there, on July 16, 1723; the 
tenth of eleven children, five of whom died in their infancy. 
He was, for sometime, instructed in the classics by his father, 
and was intended for the practice of physic; but he began, 
at a very early age, to display an inclination for the art in 
which he subsequently made so distinguished a figure. At 
eight years of age he made himself so far master of perspec¬ 
tive, as to draw his father’s bookcase according to rule, and, 
encouraged by his affectionate parent, amused himself by 
copying prints that he found in books, and particularly those 
in Jacob Kat’s emblems. From these early labours the 
transition was easy to the attempt at drawing likenesses of 
his friends, and in these he obtained tolerable success. 
Richardson's Treatise on Painting was then put into his 
hands, and, according to his own report, he was, by that 
work, stimulated to the greatest degree of enthusiasm for the 
art of painting, and led to regard its professors, parti¬ 
cularly Raphael, as among the greatest and most illustrious 
of men, either in ancient or modern time. After he had 
spent some time practising in the neighbouring country, his 
parents were induced, by the advice of a Mr. Cranch, to 
send him to London, as the place best calculated to improve 
talents such as he had so decidedly exhibited; and accord¬ 
ingly, in October 1741, he first visited the capital, and was 
immediately placed with Mr. Hudson, the most renowned 
portrait painter of that time, in order to acquire the first rudi¬ 
ments of this art. 
Whatever was the cause, whether, as it is said, Hudson 
became jealous of the ability of his pupil, or, as is equally 
probable, the pupil became disgusted with the want of taste 
exhibited by his master, in little more than two years they 
disagreed, and young Reynolds returned to his father, and 
again employed himself in painting his friends. Many of 
these early productions of his pencil are still to be seen in 
the town and neighbourhood of Plymouth, and some of 
them possess very considerable merit, and indicate his future 
greatness. One of them, particularly, of a boy reading in 
reflected light, 30 years afterwards, excited surprize in his 
own mind, and an expression of regret that, in so many 
years, he should have made so little progress in his profession. 
He is said to have lamented having passed this period of his 
life in the way he had done; most probably, however, that re¬ 
gret alludes to his abseuce from London, where he would 
most undoubtedly have seen more of the art, and learnt 
more of its practice, than elsewhere. But perhaps it was a 
fortunate occurrence that he was removed to a station where 
he had to rely upon his own exertions, unbiassed by the 
gross and barbarous taste which then prevailed; since, guided 
by his own feelings, he followed the dictates of nature, 
untrammelled by the pedantry of amateurs, and the low 
ignorance of the greater part of the professors of the 
day. 
Finding his practice increasing, he took a house, at Ply¬ 
mouth Dock, and there became known to the family of 
Mount Edgecumbe, by whom he was warmly patronized, 
and recommended to captain (afterwards lord) Keppel, who 
carried him to Italy in 1749 ; and it would appear, from a 
letter of his to lord Mount Edgecumbo, written when he 
was in Rome, that that noble lord defrayed the expence of 
his residence there. The course of his studies during the 
three years that he spent there, is not precisely known. 
He made some few copies, of figures and heads from the 
works of Raphael, but that does not appear to have - been a 
favourite mode of study with him, for in one of his lectures 
he has said, “ the man of true genius, instead or spending 
all his hours, as many artists do while they are at Rome, in 
measuring statues, and copying pictures, soon begins to 
think for himself, and endeavours to do something like what 
he sees. I consider general copying as a delusive kind of 
industry; the student satisfies himself with the appearance 
of doing something; he falls into the danger of imitating 
without selecting, and of labouring without any determinate 
object: as it requires no effort of the mind, he sleeps over 
his work; and those powers of invention and disposition, 
which ought particularly to be called out and put in action, 
lie torpid, and lose their energy for want of exercise. How 
incapable of producing any thing of their own, those are, 
who have spent most of their time in copying, is an observa¬ 
tion well known to all who are conversant in our art.” 
That he reflected deeply on the great works of the ancient 
and modern masters is evident, both from his pictures and 
writings; though the taste with which he subsequently ap¬ 
plied the knowledge he had acquired, proves the originality 
of his mind, and the extent of his genius.. 
Mr. Reynolds returned through Paris to Eugland in 
October 1752, and after a short time spent at his native 
place, to recruit his health, which had somewhat suffered 
by the journey, he fixed his settled residence in the metro¬ 
polis ; taking a house in St. Martin’s-lane. He there painted, 
as his first essay, a head, from an Italian youth he had 
brought over with him, (Giuseppe Marchi). He dressed it 
in a rich turban, and its execution excited so much attention, 
that his old master, Hudson, was induced to go to see it, and 
carefully watched its progress; when, upon seeing at length 
no trace of his own manner left, and unable, or unwilling, to 
find any other merit in it, he exclaimed, “ Why Reynolds, 
you don’t paint so well as you did when you left England!” 
Notwithstanding this envious declaration, the pupil became 
the superior favourite with the public; and Hudson retiring, 
left him without a competitor. 
In 1753, or 4, he took a large house in Newport-street, 
where he resided for eight or nine years, and there he paint¬ 
ed a whole length portrait of his friend Commodore Keppel 
walking on the sea-shore, which drew upon him universal 
admiration, and fixed him completely in the public esteem. 
At this time his price was ten guineas for a head ; in 1755 
he raised it to twelve; and in 1758 to twenty guineas; and 
he afterwards, by degrees, advanced it to fifty ; at which it 
remained till he declined practice; the price of a half length, 
during the latter period, being 100, and for a whole length 
200 guineas. 
To say that he was universally regarded as being at the 
head of the profession of portrait painting at the time ad¬ 
verted to, cannot indeed be considered as any great praise, 
such was its degraded condition; though Hudson had cer¬ 
tainly advanced above his immediate predecessors. Rey¬ 
nolds, however, deserved much more, for he united to a 
dignified characteristic resemblance of the head, an endless 
variety of spirited and graceful attitudes, picturesque back¬ 
grounds, novel and striking effects of light and shade, with a 
voluptuous richness and harmony of colour, which certainly 
had never before been seen united to so many other qualities 
in that branch of the art. It must not, however, be- under¬ 
stood, that his performances at that time possessed those 
excellencies to the degree in which we find them in his latter 
works; for he was one of the few, whose efforts ended 
but with his life; who has been heard to say, that he never 
began a picture without a determination to make it hi* best; 
and whose unceasing progress almost justified the maxim 
he was so fond of repeating continually, “ that nothing is 
denied to well directed industry.” Besides his uncommon 
assiduity, which was apparent to all, little information re¬ 
mains to us of the precise method of study by which such 
extraordinary excellence was attained, except what may be 
collected from the following extract, made from some papers 
left by him, and intended perhaps for insertion in another 
discourse ; in which, as his biographer observes, he speaks 
