REYNOLDS, Sir JosnuA, P.R.A., is generally acknowledged to be at the head of the English school of painting; he was b. on July 16, 1723. His father was the rev. Samuel Reynolds, rector of Plympton, St. Mary, and master of the grammar school of Plympton, Devonshire. He intended his son for the medical profession, but Joshua having manifested from an early age an arc".ent desire to be a painter, was, in 1741, placed under Hudson, the principal portrait-painter of the day. After being in the studio of this artist two years he commenced on his own account as a.. portrait-painter at Plymouth dock, now Devonport, and met with great encouragement. In 1746 he went to London and established himself in St. Martin's lane; but on the• appointment of commodore Keppel to the Mediterranean station, he accepted an invi tation to accompany hini, sailed from Plymouth in 1749, and on his arrival in Leghorn,. proceeded to Rome. He remained about three years in Italy, most diligently employ mg his time in visiting the various cities where the chief art-collections are to be found. On his returning to London in Oct., 1752, his works attracted great attention, eclipsing everything that had been done there since Aran Dyeles time. When the royal academy was instituted in 1769 he was elected president; was knighted by George III., and on Rarnsay's death, in 1784, succeeded him as painter to the king. He died iu his house in Leicester square on Feb. 23, 1792, and after lying in state at the royal academy, was interred in the crypt of St. Paul's. Sir Joshua lived in friendly intercourse with John
son, Burke, and the leading men- of his period. His literary works consist of fifteen -discourses delivered in the royal academy; three essays contributed to the idler, at Dr. olinson's request; notes to Mason's translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; a few notes for Dr. Johnson's edition of Shakespeare; and notes of his tour through Flanders in 1781. In his writings, there is much valuable information on art, imparted in an admir able manner; but he has been charged with laying down in them various rules and hold ing up the works of certain schools as models for the student, while he himself did not carry out these precepts in his practice as an artist; and from this an unfair inference has been drawn, that from love of gain he cultivated portrait-painting the most lucrative branch of the profession. and recommended others to follow what is generally believed to be a more arduous but less remunerative path of art. But this accusation is most unjustly made—perhaps no other artist has handed down in writing so many practically useful maxims and observations on art. His works of this kind fortunately are numerous and bear a very high value. There are nearly 700 engravings from Reynolds's pictures; most of them admirably rendered in mezzotint.—Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds (2 vols. 8 vo, Lond. 1819); Cunningham's Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (Lond. 1854, vol. 1).