We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshua's pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. Joshua Reynolds, portrait painter and aesthetician who dominated English artistic life in the middle and late 18th century. Although a prolific self-portraitist, he was determined to raise the social status of the arts and usually presented himself as a gentleman, or ‘man of letters’. As Nicholas Penny has pointed out, this is likely to be the ‘bust in plaister of M Angelo’ which Reynolds owned and which was sold in the studio sale after the death of his niece (Christie’s, Lot 78, 19 May 1821 and Penny, 1986). 43-44Martin Postle (ed. Howe, 1933, XVII, p. 61). Switchboard: +44 (0) 20 7306 0055, You must have Javascript enabled to view zooming images, We are currently closed until spring 2023, while essential building works take place, Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary, Self-Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary, Late Eighteenth Century Prints and Drawings, National Portrait Gallery works in Elizabeth to Victoria exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The self-portrait is highly suggestive of Reynolds' confidence in his artisitc powers and the nature of his ambition to compete with the great artists of the past, particularly Rembrandt. Schiavonetti, 21 May 1810 (part only)William Bond, 20 January 1811R.W. The sitter, however, was in fact a courtesan who was famous in British society for her sexual alliances with a number of high-profile aristocrats. Your contributions must be polite and with no intention of causing trouble. Self-portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA, Looking for one of our artists or something from our Collection? More significantly, Reynolds' left hand rests on a cast after a bust of Michelangelo by Daniel da Volterra (1564–1566, Casa Buonarroti, Florence). Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock (now Devonport). Having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Burlington House, Piccadilly,London, W1J 0BD, Self-portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA, We use cookies to improve your experience online. 73 and 82 John Ingamells, The National Portrait Gallery, Mid Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, London: National Portrait Gallery, 2004, pp. If they inspire you please support our work. While in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Commenced by C. R. L., continued and concluded by Tom Taylor. archives, I go with the great stream of life' (cited in the Rebels and Martyrs catalogue, National Gallery, 2006, cat. PORTRAIT OF LADY ANNE DAWSON (1733–1769), AS DIANA. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School in the town. This fascination with depicting himself was connected with his interest in Rembrandt whose portrait prints, in particular, were revered in Britain at this time. (R.J. Walker, 1992, no. When should this exhibition be published? Reynolds' large, painted self-portraits - like this one - were produced at important moments in his life and have been characterised as 'part of a hard-headed public relations exercise' (Tate 2005, p.73). Please could you let us know your source of information. frames. The full text of the article is here →, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Reynolds, Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers, Mary Amelia, 1st Marchioness of Salisbury, The Infant Hercules Strangling Serpents in His Crade. Reynolds' annotated copy was lost for nearly two hundred years until it appeared in a Cambridge bookshop, inscribed with the signature ‘J. His father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. ', 1770-80. This device, along with the overt references to Michelangelo and Rembrandt, reinforces Reynolds' visual statement of academic authority. Sometimes we have not recorded the date of a portrait. However, there is no record of exactly when the portraits entered the RA Collection nor of any official commission from the Academy or the King or Queen for Reynolds to paint these works.In his self-portrait, Reynolds deliberately paid homage to Rembrandt in both composition and technique and the painting has been specifically compared to Rembrandt’s Aristotle contemplating a Bust of Homer, 1653, (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), a painting later owned by Reynolds' friend Abraham Hume. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. This early painting is unique, however, in depicting him at work, clothes loosened and displaying the tools of his trade: a canvas, palette and brushes. 783) copied by Sarah Barett Malden (Louvre).Further reading:Mark Hallett, Reynolds: Portraiture in Action, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Reynolds painted numerous self-portraits during his long career. The landscape format and pose are also unusual, no doubt a bid by the artist to showcase his versatility and inventiveness: his contemporary and chief rival Thomas Gainsborough allegedly once exclaimed: ‘Damn him, how various he is!’. Through his art and teaching, he attempted to lead British painting away from the indigenous anecdotal pictures of the early 18th century toward … It is an image that shows him holding the tools of his trade and at the beginning of his career as an artist, before he travelled to Italy. Do an advanced search in Oil on panel. Reynolds was the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts. The Gallery holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world. The National Portrait Gallery will NOT use your information to contact you or store for any other purpose than to investigate or display your contribution. ), Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity, Tate Britain, London, 2005, cat. David Mannings noted that the pose Reynolds adopted probably derives from Van Dyck's engraved portrait of Adam De Coster (Penny, 1986). Please Like other favourites! Reynolds’ ability to absorb different influences was admired by Gainsborough. by Sir Joshua Reynoldsoil on canvas, circa 1747-174925 in. Plympton, Devon 1723 - 1792 London. ca. Reynolds Pictor’, and is now in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Elected RA: 10 December 1768 If you require information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service. Choose your favourite portrait from our Collection as a framed or unframed print for your home. (635 mm x 743 mm)Purchased, 1858Primary CollectionNPG 41. x 29 1/4 in. Explore art works, paint-smeared palettes, scribbled letters and more... Artists and architects have run the RA for 250 years. In this portrait he holds a shovel palette and maulstick in his left hand, while shading his eyes with his right, thereby focusing our attention on his most precious painting tools, his hands and eyes. Wendorf, Sir Joshua Reynolds: with notices of some of his sons to the use of as! Apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock ( Devonport... Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the major European painters the! Over 215,000 works, 150,000 of which Reynolds made copies the imperfect for four years Reynolds... 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