Sir Joshua Reynolds
British
1723-1792
Sir Joshua Reynolds Locations
Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723. As one of eleven children, and the son of the village school-master, Reynolds was restricted to a formal education provided by his father. He exhibited a natural curiosity and, as a boy, came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life.
Showing an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable portrait painter Thomas Hudson, with whom he remained until 1743. From 1749 to 1752, he spent over two years in Italy, where he studied the Old Masters and acquired a taste for the "Grand Style". Unfortunately, whilst in Rome, Reynolds 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. From 1753 until the end of his life he lived in London, his talents gaining recognition soon after his arrival in France.
Reynolds worked long hours in his studio, rarely taking a holiday. He was both gregarious and keenly intellectual, with a great number of friends from London's intelligentsia, numbered amongst whom were Dr Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Giuseppe Baretti, Henry Thrale, David Garrick and fellow artist Angelica Kauffmann. Because of his popularity as a portrait painter, Reynolds enjoyed constant interaction with the wealthy and famous men and women of the day, and it was he who first brought together the famous figures of "The" Club.
With his rival Thomas Gainsborough, Reynolds was the dominant English portraitist of 'the Age of Johnson'. It is said that in his long life he painted as many as three thousand portraits. In 1789 he lost the sight of his left eye, which finally forced him into retirement. In 1791 James Boswell dedicated his Life of Samuel Johnson to Reynolds.
Reynolds died on 23 February 1792 in his house in Leicester Fields, London. He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. Related Paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds :. | Portrait of John Stuart | Portrait of Jane Fleming | lady catherine pelham-clinton | Study for King Lear | members of the society of dilettanti | Related Artists: Pablo de San LeocadioItalian-born Spanish Painter, 1447-ca.1520 Antoni Brodowski(26 December 1784 - 31 March 1832) was a Polish Neo-classicist painter and pedagogue. Brodowski was born in Warsaw but moved to Paris to study under Jean Augustin and Jacques-Louis David, later Brodowski's idol. He also became a pupil of Anne-Louis Girodet and Francois Gerard. His compositions are very large-scale with many figures, and often based on themes from Antiquity. Brodowski is also well-known for his decorative paintings within palaces and theatres in Warsaw.
Giuseppe BazzaniItalian Baroque Era Painter, 1690-1769
was an Italian painter of the Rococo. Born in Mantua to a goldsmith, Giovanni Bazzani, early on he apprenticed with the Parmesan painter Giovanni Canti (1653-1715). A fellow pupil was Francesco Maria Raineri. He spent most of his life in Mantua. From 1752, he was faculty, and from 1767, director of the Accademia di Belle Arti of Mantua. While esconced in a declining provincial city, he absorbed international influences. His loose brushstrokes, fervid often dark emotionalism, and tortured poses, which recall at times later expressionism, display stylistic tendencies more typical of Lombardy. Numerous artists, including Fetti, Bencovich, Rubens, and Magnasco are said to have influenced him, although the number and diversity of the artists suggested hints that he had an idiosyncratic and unique synthesis for his time. Among his early works are paintings of the Miracles of Pius V, the Conversion of a Heretic and the Healing of a Madwoman
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