Sir Joshua Reynolds

Biography
Born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723
One of ten (maybe eleven) children
The son of the village school-master
He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy.
George III knighted him in 1769.
From 1749 to 1752, he spent over two years in Italy, mainly in Rome, where he studied the Old Masters and acquired a taste for the "Grand Style". From 1753 on, he lived and worked in London.
With his rival Thomas Gainsborough, he was the dominant English portraitist of the second half of the 18th century. Reynolds painted in more of an idealized fashion than his rival. Reynolds was a brilliant academic.
His lectures (Discourses) on art, delivered at the Royal Academy between 1769 and 1790, are remembered for their sensitivity and perception.

Augustus Keppel.
1752-1753

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Self-Portrait.
1747

The Eliot Family.
1746

Clotworthy Skeffington, Later 1st Earl of Massereene. 1744-1746.

Thomas and Martha Neate, with Tutor
1748

Sir Thomas Kennedy, James Caulfeild, Mr Ward and Mr Phelps
1751

Mrs William Molesworth
1755

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Elizabeth, Countess of Pembroke and Her Son.
1764-1767

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Lady Mary Leslie.
1764.