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diff --git a/41497-0.txt b/41497-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..615e4df --- /dev/null +++ b/41497-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,946 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41497 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations, + some of which are in color. + See 41497-h.htm or 41497-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41497/41497-h/41497-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41497/41497-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/reynolds00bensuoft + + + + + +Masterpieces in Colour + +Edited by--T. Leman Hare + +REYNOLDS +1723-1792 + + * * * * * + +IN THE SAME SERIES + + ARTIST. AUTHOR. + VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. + REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. + ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. + GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. + BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. + ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. + BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. + FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. + REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. + LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. + RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. + HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. + TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. + CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. + GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. + TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + LUINI. JAMES MASON. + FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. + VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. + LEONARDO DA VINCI. M. W. BROCKWELL. + RUBENS. S. L. BENSUSAN. + WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. + HOLBEIN. S. L. BENSUSAN. + BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. + VIGÉE LE BRUN. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. + FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. + MEMLINC. W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE. + CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. + RAEBURN. JAMES L. CAW. + JOHN S. SARGENT. T. MARTIN WOOD. + +_Others in Preparation._ + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--MRS. HOARE AND CHILD. In the Wallace +Collection, London. (Frontispiece) + +This picture is perhaps one of Sir Joshua Reynolds' most beautiful +compositions. The flesh painting is very fine and the handling of the +dress remarkably free, its delicate colouring being in beautiful harmony +with the surroundings. The painter gave us a portrait of the same child +when he was a boy; it is now in the collection of Baron Albert de +Rothschild. Sir Joshua made for this picture a sketch in oils which +hangs in the Gallery at Bridgewater House.] + + + +REYNOLDS + +by + +S. L. BENSUSAN + +Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +London: T. C. & E. C. Jack +New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Plate + I. Mrs. Hoare and Child Frontispiece + In the Wallace Collection, London + Page + II. Nelly O'Brien 14 + In the Wallace Collection, London + + III. The Three Graces 24 + In the National Gallery, London + + IV. The Age of Innocence 34 + In the National Gallery, London + + V. Lord Heathfield 40 + In the National Gallery, London + + VI. Portrait of Two Gentlemen 50 + In the National Gallery, London + + VII. Portrait of Lady and Child 60 + In the National Gallery, London + + VIII. Duchess of Devonshire and Child 70 + At Chatsworth House, Derbyshire + + + + +[Illustration] + +There are certain men born to every generation who approach life with +the complete assurance of distinction in any work that they may have +chosen for the exercise of their gifts. They are strangers to doubt and +uncertainty; they disarm Fortune by claiming freely as a right what she +is accustomed to grant grudgingly as a favour--"they ride Life's lists +as a knight might ride." One feels that these fortunate few are destined +for success just as the majority are doomed to failure, that nothing +save a long series of mishaps can keep them from the goal of their +ambition. They have the temperament that makes achievement easy, and a +steadfast determination that the demons of mischance cannot resist for +long. + +When one turns to consider English art in the eighteenth century, the +name of Joshua Reynolds stands out in a brighter light than any +other. One would not say that he was the greatest painter of his +time--Gainsborough's gifts exceeded his in many directions, and Romney +enters into competition too--but Reynolds was born under a fortunate +star, and Nature gave him as a birthday present a rare mixture of +talent, industry, and common-sense, together with a sober judgment that +could not be turned aside by passion or emotion. Such gifts, if they do +not always create a genius, may enable their possessor to achieve work +that has certain affinities with the masterpieces of the immortals. +Nobody in these days would deny for a moment that Reynolds possessed +qualifications of the highest order; but ours is an age of hero-worship, +and we are rather inclined to go beyond our brief in dealing with a +representative man whose work has survived the criticism (though, alas, +it has not always survived the atmosphere) of nearly two centuries. +Reynolds is not the less a great painter because he did not happen to be +the great man so many of his biographers have seen, nor was he a +heaven-sent genius of the kind that flutters the musical dovecots from +time to time. Infant prodigies are hardly known in the world of art, +and Reynolds started life as a clever young man determined to make a +name. He became soon a painter strong enough to realise his own +limitations and those of his age, and to take the best possible steps to +secure for his own art, and incidentally for that of his country, the +highest position in the esteem of the world at large. Had there been no +Reynolds there might have been no Royal Academy--the Institution in its +earliest days was indebted very deeply to him. Himself far above the +squabbles of the hour, he raised the Royal Academy into the serene and +almost untroubled atmosphere in which he lived his life. + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--NELLY O'BRIEN. (In the Wallace Collection) + +This portrait is one of the best examples of Sir Joshua's art, and was +painted in 1763. The shadow on the face is most skilfully managed. The +lace round the arm and the skirt are painted in the artist's best +manner. It will be remembered that Sir Joshua painted other portraits of +this fascinating woman.] + +"I will be a painter, if you will give me the chance of being a good +one," he is said to have remarked when quite a lad, and this is but +one of the simple sentences that hold and in a sense reveal the keynote +of his character. Reynolds was determined to succeed. When he started +his work there were few people in England who could guide him in the +right way, and consequently we must not look for any great achievement +in the early portraits. The painter may be said to have owed his first +success to Commodore Keppel, who took him on a cruise in the +Mediterranean and helped him to come into touch with the great +masterpieces that will probably stimulate artists for all time. In +return, the painter gave the sailor a measure of fame that his naval +achievements would hardly have secured. + +Italy turned the dross of Reynolds' art to fine gold, and he never +shrank from acknowledging the debt. Had he stayed in England he might +have been a greater man than all his contemporaries, save Gainsborough +and Romney, but he could not have given the world any one of the +pictures that are reproduced here. Art will not yield to inspiration +alone. The musician, or the literary man, with very simple education may +be able to achieve wonders, but the artist who looks to brushes and +colours for his medium must sacrifice diligently for many years at the +shrine of technique before his hand can express what is in his brain. +The years between 1749 and 1752, devoted by Reynolds to studying and +copying the Vatican frescoes and the pictures of Padua, Milan, Turin, +and Paris, were invaluable. Indeed he was one of the greatest copyists +of his time, and Sir Walter Armstrong thinks that one of his copies of a +Rembrandt is classed among the originals in the National Gallery +to-day! + +Down to the year of the Italian journey the young painter's life had +been quite uneventful. Born in 1723 at Plympton in Devonshire, where his +father was a school-master, he was apprenticed in London to Thomas +Hudson, a portrait painter of the day and a Devon man too. Hudson gave +his pupil Guercino's drawings to copy. Before the time of apprenticeship +had expired Reynolds had quarrelled with his master and gone back to +Devonshire, where he painted work that was of no great importance, under +the patronage of the first Lord Edgcumbe. At his house Reynolds met the +Commodore Keppel, whose kindness enabled him to see Italy, and it was +the sojourn in that real home of art that brought Reynolds back to +England a portrait painter of the first class. + +Michelangelo had impressed him deeply. In later days he never lost an +opportunity of advising students to sit at the feet of the great master, +and the influence of the work in the Sistine Chapel may be noted in the +famous picture of Mrs. Siddons, now to be seen in the Dulwich Gallery. +Ludovico Caracci and Guido had given him hints that were of infinite +value in the moulding of his technique; for colour he had gone to +Titian, Tintoretto, and Rubens, of whom the last named was beginning to +lose his appeal in the last years of Reynolds' life. Sir Joshua had a +supreme facility for taking from every artist the best that was in him, +melting it in the crucible of his own thought, and applying the product +to his pictures. There is no doubt that the sixteenth-century Venetians +impressed Reynolds as much as they impressed Ruskin at a later date, but +in the middle of the eighteenth century the school of Bologna was in +the ascendant in England, and it is through Reynolds' actions rather +than his words that we see how Venice had influenced him. Sir Walter +Armstrong thinks that Reynolds lived well rather than wisely in Italy, +and that when he came back to town his wild oats were all sown, but it +is hard to find any justification for the belief that Reynolds was at +any time of his life a free liver. The pleasures of the table may have +claimed him when he reached middle age; indeed, Dr. Johnson said to him +on one occasion, "You complain about the tea I drink, but I do not count +the glasses you empty," or words to that effect. As far as other forms +of dissipation go, there is no evidence that Reynolds was ever a victim +to them. He was always perfect master of his self-control, and when the +years had toned down certain faults of thought and manner, he became +mellowed, like old wine, and not less stimulating. + +Students of the famous discourses that Sir Joshua addressed annually to +the Royal Academy after he became first President of the new +institution, may be justified if they suspect that the great painter +adopted the same rule in dealing with his students that skilled musical +composers use when dealing with their pupils. A musican knows that the +laws of harmony and counterpoint are not fixed, that the musical horizon +widens year by year, and that rules may often be disregarded by a +composer who has something to say; but, in order that composition may +grow from some definite form, it is necessary that the rules should be +mastered before they are disregarded. So in dealing with things of art, +Reynolds said much to his audience that his own practice did not bear +out. He would not hint at his own preferences quite so frankly as his +canvases did and it is not at all unlikely that he realised as well as +we do, that while students, like the poor, are always with us, great +artists are few and far between, and will survive all academic +limitations. + +When Reynolds came back to England in 1752, he went down to Devonshire +to recruit his health. While his sojourn abroad had been productive of +so much that had been invaluable to him, he had met with two unfortunate +accidents. In Minorca he had fallen from his horse and sustained +injuries that had left his face scarred for all time. In the Vatican he +had sustained a chill that brought about the deafness destined to be a +life-long infirmity. So he took holiday in the county he loved so well, +and after his return he opened a studio in St. Martin's Street, acting +on the advice of his friend and patron, Lord Edgcumbe. There was no +period of weary waiting. Thanks to the quality of his work and the +patronage granted so freely, he began at once to enjoy the success that +belongs to the popular portrait painter. A little later he moved to +Great Newport Street, where the accommodation was better suited to the +growing claims of sitters, and in 1760 he went to 47 Leicester Square, +now an auction-house, where he lived for the remainder of his life. As +he moved he raised his prices, but nobody seemed to mind. Everybody who +was anybody, paid cheerfully. So did some of the other people. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--THE THREE GRACES. (In the National Gallery) + +This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1774 and called, +"Three Ladies adorning a Term of Hymen." It was bequeathed to the +National Gallery by the Earl of Blessington. The Graces are the three +daughters of Sir W. Montgomery. The one on the left kneeling down is the +Hon. Mrs. Beresford, in the centre is the Hon. Mrs. Gardener, mother of +Lord Blessington, and on the right is the Marchioness Townsend.] + +Many artists remain painters all their lives. Meet them in a studio or +at a private view and they are illuminating; talk about another +lying outside their immediate interests and they are dumb, or worse, for +some talk without saying anything, as though they were mere politicians. +Perhaps we have no right to complain of this lack of mental dimensions, +but it is permissible to note with pleasure the few cases in which an +artist reveals himself as an accomplished man of the world. Reynolds +would never have been content to be nothing more than a painter, and he +chose his friends so wisely that the living served him as well as the +dead. If the great artists of Italy had shed light upon his path in one +direction, what did he not owe to the men of his own generation, whose +society must have been a source of inspiration to any intelligent man? +Dr. Johnson himself could only have been inspiring company, even though +we may think in our heart of hearts that the benefit of the inspiration +was not without serious drawbacks. Reynolds enjoyed also the intimate +friendship of Garrick, Goldsmith, Gibbon, and Burke, he consorted with +many other men who made some mark in the world of thought, and in this +atmosphere the extraordinary receptivity of his mind must have served +him to great advantage. He had human weaknesses to live down, and it is +to his credit that he conquered all or most of them. Like so many honest +Englishmen, there was a touch of the snob about him--witness his +correspondence with Lord Edgcumbe during the first visit to the +Continent. He was not without jealousy, as may be seen from his pettish +condemnation of the work of Liotard, the miniature painter and +pastellist, and his references to Gainsborough and Romney, whose +success and accomplishments galled him not a little. He was vulgar, +until he learned refinement from the distinguished people with whom he +was brought into contact--witness the gilded coach and gaudy liveries he +bought when he established himself in Leicester Square, the coach in +which his unfortunate sister Frances was compelled to drive in order +that the man in the street might stare open-mouthed and talk about her +brother. There is hardly a "Lion Comique," or a lady of the music halls +drawing prime minister's salary for songs blatant or obscene, who would +commit such an offence to-day, and against these lapses from taste Sir +Joshua's acquaintance with the best minds of his day failed to save him. +Perhaps the atmosphere of Leicester Square in the eighteenth, as in the +twentieth, century was a little theatrical. Of course the faults of a +man and the merits of his work are distinct and stand apart from one +another, but we are too apt to look at Reynolds the man in the light of +Goldsmith's epitaph, and it is the failing of popular biography to +supply popular people with a measure of moral equipment that would make +a saint self-conscious. It is far more interesting to see great men as +they lived, and understand that, like the rest of us, they had a fair, +or unfair, share of faults. Had Sir Joshua possessed twice as many +failings, he would still remain one of the greatest, if not the +greatest, of British portrait painters. Had he associated all the +virtues with less achievement, he could not have interested us, because +happily we do not judge art by the moral standard of the artist. + +Perhaps the most remarkable side of Reynolds' mind was seen in its +response to the real truths that underlie all the arts. He held his work +to be a mode of expressing human experience, he knew that there was a +domain lying beyond the reach of rules, and bade his students look "with +dilated eye," sacrificing detail to general effect for the sake of the +best and most imaginative work. He declared without any reservations, +that he had found art in England in the lowest possible state, he +compared some of his contemporaries' work with sign-post painting, but +his fine courage was only stimulated by the bad conditions that +prevailed. He sought to raise them, and as a portrait painter, made it +his business to discover the perfections of his sitters, with the +result, that, as his genius was wholly interpretative, his pictures +stand rather less for his sitters than for their time. + +A weak man might have succumbed to the temptations that beset Reynolds +when he had established himself in Leicester Square. He was in a sense +the darling of society, earning a larger income than had been gained by +any of his contemporaries, although he painted for prices that a +third-rate man could gain to-day, if we do not regard the changed value +of money. But Reynolds never succumbed to society; he conquered it, +showing himself worthy of all the success that came to him. He did his +best, he worked hard, relaxing his efforts only when his position was +unassailable, took his enjoyment temperately, if we consider the age in +which he lived, and never forgot that his chief aim and object in life +was to paint portraits, and to paint them as well as he could. There +were years in which he completed from three to four portraits every +week, but by the time he was President of the Royal Academy, the output +had fallen to sixty or seventy a year, no small achievement for a man +who was at liberty to enjoy all that was best, and brightest, and most +enduring in London society, and everything most attractive in the +country. + +The life and times of Sir Joshua have a special interest for British +artists, even apart from his work, because he lived through the years of +storm and strife that saw the development of the R.A. It is not easy to +tell in full the story of its establishment without long and detailed +references to the quarrels and intrigues of the artists of the day and +even then it is not easy to see the truth clearly through the mists of +controversy. None of Sir Joshua's biographies goes uncontradicted, and +it is safe to say that we must be content to forego for all time exact +knowledge of certain incidents in the life of Reynolds. He had +considerable reserve, a fair sense of diplomacy, and was not without +knowledge that there were foes as well as friends in the crowd that +surrounded him. His contemporaries were often baffled by his silence, +and the secrets of his tastes and intimate likes and dislikes died with +him. He had friends, but no confidantes. A brief outline of the creation +of the R.A. is all that needs be given here. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. + +(In the National Gallery) + +This picture was bought at the sale of Mr. Harman's pictures. It has +been engraved two or three times and is one of the most popular examples +of the master's work.] + +In the year 1760, when Reynolds was approaching the zenith of his fame, +an art exhibition was held in London, attracted a great deal of +attention, and became an annual institution. Thereafter, we begin to +hear of the Society of Artists, which received from George III. a +certificate of Incorporation in 1765, blossomed out with the +grandiloquent title of the "Incorporated Society of Artists of Great +Britain," and published a list of two hundred and eleven members, +including Joshua Reynolds. An offshoot from this society was known as +the Free Society of Artists; in the history of art there have always +been some men "agin the government." Heart-burning and jealousy were +associated with the work of the Incorporated Society, and William +Chambers the architect, who had the king's ear, brought about the +foundation of the R.A. Reynolds took no visible part in the intrigue, in +fact he was abroad during the months when the squabbles were most +violent, and when the Presidency was offered to him, he asked for time +to discuss the matter with Dr. Johnson and Edmund Burke. Apparently he +had studied Shakspere's "Julius Cæsar." In December 1768, the +constitution of the Royal Academy was signed by the King, and the +Incorporated Society was left to linger for a few years in the cold +shades of opposition and then depart from a world that had no further +use for it. William Chambers and Benjamin West seem to have done all +that was necessary to bring King George on to the side of the new +venture, which had a very wide constitution, and thirty-six original +members, including two ladies, Angelica Kaufmann and Mary Moser. William +Chambers became Treasurer, Dalton was appointed Antiquary, Goldsmith was +Professor of Ancient History, and Dr. Johnson stood for Ancient +Literature. Curiously enough, it was the foundation by Captain Coram of +the Foundling Hospital that led indirectly to the creation of the Royal +Academy. Hogarth, who was a great friend of Coram, gave pictures for the +gallery in the Hospital, Reynolds' old master, Hudson, Reynolds +himself, and Wilson, a contemporary painter of great achievement, did +the same. Mr. Claude Phillips, whose life of Sir Joshua Reynolds is one +of the best written and most discerning tributes to the master extant, +thinks that the success of the gallery at the Foundlings led to the +opening of the first exhibition of pictures by living masters in 1860. +The Society of Arts was then six years old, and the Society of Artists +was established in friendly rivalry. We have remarked that at the time +when the Incorporated Society of Artists was engaged in the final +quarrel that led to the foundation of the Academy, Sir Joshua was +travelling abroad with Richard Burke. His absence from the scene of +strife is more likely to have been diplomatic than unintentional. + + + + +II + + +We have now come down to the year 1769, and may pause with advantage to +recall some of Sir Joshua's achievements and experiences that have been +omitted from a rather hurried survey. He has already painted many of the +most famous men and women of his time, and his contributions to the +exhibitions of the Society of Artists have been the admiration of all +who take an interest in pictures. Here some of his most famous pictures +have been hung, the "Lady Elizabeth Keppel as a bridesmaid," the +"Countess Waldegrave," "Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy" (now in Lord +Rothschild's town house) and many others too numerous to be mentioned in +such a brief review as this. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--LORD HEATHFIELD. (In the National Gallery) + +This work which is held by good judges to be one of the most +characteristic portraits painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds was commissioned +by Alderman Boydell in 1787. In the background there is a view of the +Rock of Gibraltar much obscured by smoke, for the picture commemorates +the defence of the Rock from 1779 to 1783 by Lord Heathfield, then +General Eliott. The gallant soldier holds the key of the fortress in his +hand. The picture was purchased by the Government for the National +Gallery in 1824.] + +He has made another pleasant journey into Devonshire, this time in +company with Dr. Johnson, whose consumption of cider and cream has +created a mild sensation. He has visited Wilton and Longford, where some +of his works may be seen to-day; he has enlarged his circle of friends, +while his acquaintances are as the sands upon the seashore for +multitude. He belongs to the once famous Dilettanti Society, founded in +1732 to study antiquities and arts; he has painted his own portrait to +celebrate his election, and presented it to the Society. It may be seen +in the Grafton Gallery to-day, together with two groups of members +painted at a later date. + +His drawing has become strong, his modelling firm, and his colour has +many of the qualities that distinguished the Venetian masters he loved +so well, but, alas, he has not learned the secrets of permanent +colouring, and some of his most brilliant glazes are beginning to fade +before the eyes of the troubled owners of the pictures. He has +surrendered to the pseudo-classicism of his age, and some of his +compositions are absurdly indebted to mythology; but the fault was a +virtue then, and while we complain it is only right to refer the +grievance to the time rather than to the man, and a study of Boswell +explains the painter's attitude, even though it cannot justify it. + +He has found time to enjoy the pursuits of a country gentleman; he +shoots and hunts in the best sporting circles. His home in Leicester +Square is open to all sorts and conditions of men; the leading lights of +the day--Gainsborough and Romney excepted--are welcome. He keeps a +liberal but ill-served table, and his friends will find a welcome if +they call in time for dinner at five o'clock, even if they must +scramble for a fair share of the meal. He has lost the raw manners of +early years, _faux pas_ are few and far between. From Johnson he has +acquired a certain literary style, rather heavy and turgid, perhaps, but +precise and final. It is possible, but not certain, that "The Club" has +been established, and that the twelve original members are meeting for +supper at the sign of the Turk's Head in Gerrard Street. He has pupils, +for whom he does little or nothing, and assistants who paint draperies +for him, and receive a little useful instruction now and again. +Northcote, who is to publish his "Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds" nearly +half a century later, and become the one successful painter from the +Leicester Square establishment, has met the great man in Devonshire with +emotions similar to those that Reynolds felt in the far away days when, +an unknown pupil of Hudson, he saw the great and distinguished author of +"The Rape of the Lock" in the centre of an admiring and respectful +crowd. + +Who shall do justice to the crowds that thronged the studio? Certainly +mere words cannot picture the scenes that the old house in Leicester +Square witnessed in those stirring times. Deafness could hardly have +been an unmixed evil to a man whose sitters were of the most diverse +kind. Leslie and Taylor in their voluminous work, "The Life and Times of +Sir Joshua Reynolds," have written at length upon this aspect of the +painter's daily life, and have described the constant stream of men and +women who could not have been placed side by side for five minutes save +on the walls of the exhibition. Representatives of the most opposed +school of politics, High Church dignitaries, courtesans, soldiers, +flaneurs, society women, sailors, ambassadors, actors, children, members +of the Royal Family, men from the street, like White the paviour--one +and all claimed the measure of immortality that his brush confers, and +if his best work could but have retained its qualities, the latter half +of the eighteenth century would be preserved for us in fashion +calculated to make future generations envious. Unfortunately, Sir Walter +Armstrong, the painter's most trenchant latter day critic, is justified +when he writes: "Speaking roughly, Sir Joshua's early pictures darken, +the works of his middle period fade, those of his late maturity crack. +The productions of his first youth and of his old age stand best of +all." When the worst has been said, it is a glorious heritage that the +painter left to his country, but who can avoid regrets when thinking +what it might have been if Reynolds had mastered the secrets of +permanent colour, if the carmine and lake had endured, and the more +brilliant effects had not been so largely experimental--if he had given +them a fair trial in studies before he used them for his best work? +Perhaps his success left no time for experiments. Sitters were urgent +and could not wait while the painter studied the question of the +chemistry of pigments. + +There is a curiously sane and optimistic note about all the Reynolds +portraits. Even where he does not succeed--in painting portrait groups, +for example--the fault is merely one of composition, he keeps to his +earliest intention of expressing what is best in the sitter, and seeing +him "with dilated eye"; he is merely unable to set several figures upon +the same canvas. Save for ever increasing deafness and a little trouble +with sister Frances, who keeps house for him and is not cast in the same +placid mould, nothing occurs to disturb the even tenor of his happy +life. Intellect rules emotions--either he has no feeling for intrigue or +he can keep his emotions beyond the reach of prying eyes. Even his +relations with Angelica Kaufmann, now in her twenty-eighth year, and an +original member of the Royal Academy, baffle the censors who would fain +discover that she was the painter's mistress. "His heart has grown +callous by contact with women," says one of his contemporaries or +biographers, and this may well be so. Angelica Kaufmann was one of the +women who attract men, and there is no evidence to show that Reynolds +was more than a good friend to her. Long years later, when the visits to +Leicester Square could have been no more than a memory, she attracted +Goethe, who used to read to her some of his unpublished work. The +painter's self-control has made some of his biographers angry; they +write as though fearful lest, on account of his virtue, there shall be +no more cakes and ale, and ginger shall no longer be hot in the mouth. +If they could but catch him tripping, he might return to the highest +place in their affections, and all would be forgiven. There is something +so human in this attitude that it becomes almost tolerable, though it is +hard to avoid a smile when one finds that the subject of the relations +between Sir Joshua and Miss Kaufmann have been discussed quite seriously +by foreign writers. If Sir Joshua could have made the lady a better +artist, if it can be shown that he saved her from being a worse one than +she was, there is something to write about; the subject of their +personal relations cannot possibly concern the world at large, and is +not worth a tithe of the ink that has been spilt in attack or defence. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--PORTRAIT OF TWO GENTLEMEN. (In the National +Gallery) + +This picture was painted in 1778 and presented to the National Gallery +in 1866 by Mrs. Plenge. The gentleman on the right examining the prints +and holding a violin in his right hand is one J. C. W. Bampfylde, the +one on the left is the Rev. George Huddersford who was for some years a +painter and a pupil of Sir Joshua.] + + + + +III + + +We owe an apology to the new President whom we left standing upon the +threshold of the Royal Academy, which opened its doors with a first +exhibition of one hundred and thirty-six pictures! The memory of this +commendable modesty should not be allowed to fade in these days when +canvas stretches by the acre over the long-suffering walls of Burlington +House, when artists appear not singly but in battalions and the cry is +"still they come." In April 1769 Reynolds received the honour of +knighthood and this seems to have put the finishing touches to his +social claims. Henceforward he painted fewer portraits; the records of +1771 credit him with a mere seventy, and though this figure may make +modern men gasp, it compares but feebly with the one hundred and +eighty-four that stood to the credit of an earlier year. The President +increased the number of his clubs, enlarged his dining circle, became +more and more dignified, mellow, gracious, and urbane, farther removed +than before from the turmoil that was going on in art circles of the +less successful men around him. Having all the cream he required, he was +not concerned with quarrels about skimmed milk. Some of his biographers +think that Romney was beginning to compete with the master, and that +this competition accounts for the diminishing number of his sitters, but +it is reasonable to suppose that a man who can make his own prices and +is beyond the reach of want may regard seventy portraits as a very +satisfactory output for one year, when he has other duties to fulfil and +is by temperament a lover of the world's good things. Fortune could have +given him nothing more, unless the hearing that passed in the old days +of the pilgrimage to Rome had been restored, and if such a miracle could +have been vouchsafed, the painter's splendid indifference to matters +that annoy quick, nervous temperaments might have passed, and the latter +days might have been clouded. If wisdom at one entrance was nearly shut +out, there was plenty left, as may be gathered from a study of the +Discourses. Their vitality is proved by the fact that new editions are +still called for, and many members of the more modern schools of +painting declare that Reynolds saw some aspects of painting with +twentieth-century eyes. + +In 1773 Plympton remembered its famous artist and elected him mayor, an +honour that touched him nearly. One cannot help thinking that it was +more to him even than the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, conferred in +the same year by Oxford University _de honoris causa_, though this too +helped him to paint his own portrait in flamboyant style, and the artist +loved colour. One portrait of himself was sent to the town of Plympton +and hung between two pictures that were "old masters" according to the +leading lights of the Corporation. In truth, they were two of Sir +Joshua's own early works, and from this simple story we may learn that +artists come and artists go, but the mental calibre of corporations is +constant and not subject to change. He sent another picture of himself +to the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence, where so many Masters stand +self-committed to canvas in pictures that do not err upon the side of +making the sitters lack distinction. + +The next eight years were uneventful, save for the fact that the +President was doing some of his best work and enjoying life in the +fullest and most complete fashion imaginable. Nearly all who knew him +loved him, and to the great majority of men and women he was just and +kind. For a man so completely free from emotion and self-revelation, +Reynolds claimed a very large circle of intimates, and it was hardly an +age of introspection. Men confessed themselves to their Maker but not to +their friends; the formalities of life and speech presented an effective +barrier to the emotions, even the stage was as artificial and pompous as +it could be. One may perhaps acknowledge an uneasy feeling that David +Garrick himself would make a very small impression upon a latter-day +audience, if he confronted it with the mid-eighteenth-century style of +speech and action. + +In 1780 the Academy Exhibition was transferred from Pall Mall to +Somerset House, where it was destined to remain until 1838, the year of +its removal to the National Gallery, where it stayed thirty-one years on +the way to Burlington House. Among the portraits painted by the +President in that year was one of General Oglethorpe, who, according to +the "Table Talk" of Samuel Rogers (quoted by Sir Walter Armstrong), +could tell of the days when he had shot snipe in Conduit Street. In the +following year Reynolds painted the wonderful picture of the Ladies +Horatia, Laura, and Maria Waldegrave, one of the few groups whose +arrangement is beyond cavil. Few will look in vain to that picture for +any of the finest qualities of Sir Joshua's art. He had very little to +learn, though in the summer and autumn of 1781 he visited the Low +Countries, staying in Bruges, Brussels, The Hague, Amsterdam, and other +cities, and showing himself strangely indifferent to the pictures of +Franz Hals, though these might have been presumed to appeal to any +portrait painter. His records and impressions of the journey were set +down most carefully, and are preserved; they show that success had not +impaired discernment, and that the painter was responsive to most of the +thoughts that stir educated visitors to the Dutch galleries to-day. + +In 1782, the year in which Romney painted his first picture of Mistress +Hart, afterwards Lady Emma Hamilton, Reynolds sat to his great rival +Gainsborough, now at the height of his fame and in the last years of his +life; the two men disliked each other, and the picture was never +completed. Some say that Reynolds made a hasty remark about his fixed +determination not to paint Gainsborough's portrait in return, and some +mischief-maker carried the words to Gainsborough. Others think that the +touch of palsy or slight attack of paralysis that came to Sir Joshua +about the time of the sitting, brought it to a close. There must be more +than this underlying the true story of the affair, for though a visit to +Brighton and to Bath restored the President's health, the sittings were +not resumed, even when Reynolds wrote to say he was ready to sit again. +In 1783 Sir Joshua sent ten portraits to the Academy, while +Gainsborough, exhibiting there for the last time, sent twenty-five +pictures, including the famous panels of George III., and his +children, now in Windsor. But Reynolds added to his fame in this year, +for he painted the portrait of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse. Then he +paid another visit to the Low Countries, to find with regret that +Rubens' appeal was failing. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--PORTRAIT OF LADY AND CHILD. (In the National +Gallery) + +This portrait was purchased in 1871 with the Peel collection and is said +to represent the Hon. Mrs. Musters and her son. The composition does not +show Sir Joshua at his best, and the painting is perhaps rather thin. +The identity is not very clearly established, although the names of Mr. +and Mrs. Musters are to be found in Sir Joshua's account books.] + +In the following year, 1784, Sir Joshua sent sixteen pictures to the +Academy, including the famous Mrs. Siddons, Charles James Fox, and Mrs. +Abingdon as Roxalana. Gainsborough had quarrelled with the R.A. and +exhibited no more, though he lived until 1788. With December, Dr. +Johnson's strenuous and useful life came to an end; he passed away +exhorting his old friend never to paint on Sunday, and to read the +Bible. Reynolds has left a very interesting study of the Doctor's +character. In the following year, the President went for the third time +to the Low Countries, and bought a number of pictures; he also received +the honour of a commission from Catherine, Empress of Russia, and +painted the beautiful picture of the Duchess of Devonshire and her baby +that hangs at Chatsworth to-day. Walpole said, "it is little like, and +not good," but posterity has declined to accept the verdict. Sir Walter +Armstrong considers that it ranks with the "Lady Crosbie" and "Nelly +O'Brien" as the "most entirely successful creations" of the artist. +In '87 the President sent thirteen pictures to the Academy, including +the "Angel's Heads" now in the National Gallery. They are studies of +Frances Isabella Gordon, daughter of Lord William Gordon, and the +picture was given to the Gallery in 1841. A year later, London saw the +picture that the Empress Catherine had commissioned, the subject is +"The Infant Hercules" and the canvas hangs in the Hermitage Gallery at +St. Petersburg. It is one of the artist's failures, and he received +fifteen hundred guineas for it. This is the date of the famous +Marlborough family group that is to be seen at Blenheim. + +A year later, when the President sent some dozen pictures to the R.A., +his activity came to a sudden end. Some forty years and more had passed +since he painted the first of his works that concerns us, and he had not +known an idle season. His record would have brought honour to any three +men; he had lived as a philosopher should, grateful for the gifts of the +gods, and not abusing any. Suddenly, in mid-July of 1789, about the time +of the fall of the Bastille, one eye failed him as he worked at his +easel; he laid his brush aside. "All things have an end--I have come to +mine," he remarked, with the quiet courage that never deserted him, and +he spent what remained to him of life making gradual preparation for the +last day, sustained by memories of the past through hours that were not +always free from pain and distress. Save for a quarrel with the Academy, +arising out of the contest for membership between Bonomi and Fuseli, +there was nothing to disturb the closing years of the old painter's +public life, and even in this quarrel, he was the victor. The General +Assembly apologised, and Reynolds withdrew his resignation, though +Chambers, now Sir William, was obliged to act for him at Somerset House. +In December of 1790 Reynolds delivered his final address to the +students, the name of Michelangelo being last upon his lips. Little more +than a year before he died, the President sat to the Swedish artist von +Breda, for a picture now in the Stockholm Academy. West did his +presidential work for him in the last months of his life. + +Many friends testify to the tranquillity of these last days, though +failing sight and the deprivation of the liberal diet to which he was +accustomed had lowered the spirits that were once bright as well as +serene. Perhaps modern medical science would have availed to lengthen +his life, and make the last few years more worth living; but in the +eighteenth century one needed a very sturdy constitution to endure the +combined attack of a disease and a doctor. Sir Joshua was in his +sixty-ninth year--he had lived in the fullest sense all the time--and +when one evening in February 1792 Death came to the House in Leicester +Square, his visit was quite expected, and was met with a tranquil mind. +The body lay in state awhile in the Royal Academy, and was then taken to +St. Paul's Cathedral, and laid by the side of Sir Christopher Wren. +To-day we look at the artist's work with a critical eye--he can no +longer thrive by comparison with contemporaries, but must compete with +all dead masters of portraiture; and it will be admitted on every side +that he holds his own, that before every throne of judgment his best +works will plead for him and vindicate the admiration of his countrymen. + +It is not the least of his claims to high consideration that his art +moved steadily forward, that the last work was the best. + + + + +IV + + +Naturally it is impossible within the limits of a small and +unpretentious monograph to give an adequate idea of the range and +variety of the labours that occupied Sir Joshua Reynolds for half a +century or more, and no attempt will be made in this place to do more +than indicate the forces that seem to have directed his brush, the +masters whose labour inspired it. It has been pointed out in these pages +that Reynolds was a great assimilator. He took from everybody, but he +was always judicious, because, quite apart from his executive faculties, +he had a critical gift of the first order. One has but to turn to his +diaries to realise that his instinct was singularly sound. He could +stand before an admitted masterpiece and enjoy all its beauties, without +losing sight of any defect however small, and because his mind was +beautifully balanced, the small points of objection did not spoil his +appreciation of the whole work. They simply taught him what he should +avoid. In the very early days of his career, before he had left +Devonshire, he made the acquaintance of one Gandy, an artist of some +small repute, whose father, also a painter, had studied Van Dyck, and +had taught his son to appreciate the fine qualities of Rembrandt. The +younger Gandy afforded Reynolds his first glimpse of the world lying +beyond the reach of the rank and file of British students, gave him his +earliest appreciation of Rembrandt, and taught him to look for that +master's work when he visited Rome. As soon as Reynolds reached Italy, +he examined the great masters with a critical eye, and set himself to +copy Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Guido, Raphael, and many others. He soon +saw that each of these masters had achieved supreme success in some +department of their life's work, and he had the idea of uniting all the +excellences that he saw around him, and leaving the defects alone. +He sought for the colour of Rubens and Titian the drawing of Raphael, +the splendour of design of Michelangelo, and the chiaroscuro of +Rembrandt. Naturally this must sound ambitious enough; but we should +remember that Reynolds was far from standing alone in his ambitions. +Mengs, who did so much to proclaim the merits of Velazquez and achieved +a great but temporary success as a painter in Madrid before Goya's +wonderful gifts threw him into well-merited obscurity, had the same +ideals, but whereas the best of his accomplishments were but dull and +short-lived, Reynolds was able to force some way through all the gifts +with which he sought to surround himself and to reach a style of his +own. The journey lasted very many years, and the road is strewn with +failures, chiefly due to an inability to grasp the secret of a durable +glaze and, like many men who came before and after him, the painter had +to part company with some at least of his ambitions. Had his own +capacity for self-criticism been less, had he allowed his feeling for +fine colour to prevail over the sound judgment that bade him look for +other and more enduring excellencies, he would not occupy the place he +holds to-day, while on the other hand, if a Titian or a Rubens had been +able to give him the secret of manipulating pigments, he would have +stood side by side with the greatest masters of all time. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND CHILD. (Chatsworth +House, Derbyshire) + +This picture, to which reference has been made in the text, hangs at +Chatsworth, and has been reproduced by permission of His Grace the Duke +of Devonshire. Although Walpole sneered at it when he saw it for the +first time, the composition stands to-day among the most admired of the +master's works.] + +Artists tell us that painting should be no more than a harmony of colour +and line, that it should not attempt to cross the borderline that +separates painting from literature. They are justified in their +attitude, but at the same time we cannot discuss painters in terms of +paint, or tell of our admiration of their work by expressing that +admiration on canvas. Those of us who are not painters, can only +approach art through literature, and seek to find in a man the +explanation of his works, and in the works, the revelation of the man. + +Joshua Reynolds possessed a master mind. He had wonderful capacity for +synthesis and analysis, and something akin to the skilled physician's +gift of diagnosis. As soon as he had built up the foundations of his own +art and found a new method of presentation, he turned all his mental +capacity to the study of the people who sat for him. As soon as he had +achieved technique, the other gifts that no technique could develop came +into play, and then his work revealed its extraordinary qualities, side +by side with the few limitations that beset his mode of life. In +society, Reynolds would seem to have been courtly and reserved. He did +not expand to women as he did to men, for he looked upon women and +children as subjects for classical treatment. He made them extremely +beautiful; he gave them graces and gifts that flatter the imagination of +those who gaze upon his pictures to-day: but there are not too many +portraits of women among those painted by Reynolds in which there is a +large quality of humanity. He suppresses a great part of the human +interest that may have been in them, and replaces it with beauty of +colour and line. Now and again, of course, he is very fortunate. When he +painted the great courtesans of his day, Polly Fisher, Nelly O'Brien, +and others of that frail sisterhood, the qualities he omitted left the +sitters quite human. There was no suggestion of the classic about them. +A Nelly O'Brien at her best is just a woman, while some of the +high-born ladies at their best became a little too cold, a little too +stately, a little too well-posed for the wicked world they lived in. +Even when we consider the famous "Jumping Baby" that hangs at +Chatsworth, it is impossible to avoid the thought that if the little one +had really been so happy and so playful, the mother's fine feathers must +have been considerably ruffled, and she must have made haste to give the +child back to the nurse. + +His children, too, are seldom of this world. Reynolds was a hardened old +bachelor with an eye for beauty. He had not studied Bellini and +Correggio for nothing, and many of his little ones are far more like +Italian angels in modern dress than English boys and girls. Of course +there are notable exceptions. "Master Crewe as Henry the Eighth" is +delightfully English. "The Strawberry Girl" is another picture painted +in hours of delightful inspiration, but "The Age of Innocence," for all +its supreme beauty, has a certain quality of conception that is +artificial. To look at Reynolds' women and children is to feel assured +that the painter lived a celibate life, and that the stories about +intrigues with Angelica Kaufmann and others are misleading and +unfounded. We have but to turn to the work of his great contemporaries, +Gainsborough and Romney, to see the difference between women in whose +veins the blood runs red, and women who feed on nectar and ambrosia and +were never seen at a disadvantage in their lives. It seems to the writer +that women and children were to Reynolds fit and proper subjects for the +exercise of his gifts, but at the same time, folk in whom he had no +abiding interest. Men interested him, and when he turned the best of his +attention to them, he gave the world work that will endure just as long +as the pigments he put down upon the canvas. + +The picture of Admiral Keppel, hanging to-day in the National Portrait +Gallery, was the first ripe fruit of the painter's Italian journey, and +had produced in the world of art something akin to a sensation. +Thereafter Reynolds stood alone as the representative eighteenth-century +painter of great men. His rivals could not approach him there. He seemed +to see right into the heart and brain of the men who sat for him, to +realise clearly and judiciously the part they were playing in life, and +he strove to set it down in such a fashion that the character and +capacities of the sitter should impress themselves at once upon those +who saw the portrait. Other painters might give one aspect of a man, +but Reynolds' vision was far larger--it was completely comprehensive; +when he had dealt with a subject, it was well-nigh impossible to +approach it again, save in the way of imitation. There was a finality +about the treatment that must have baffled and exasperated his rivals. +The portraits of Charles James Fox, David Garrick, Laurence Sterne, to +name a few, are masterly in their simplicity, in the directness of their +appeal, and in the splendid expression of character through features. To +satisfy the claims of Reynolds' brush it was absolutely necessary that +his sitters should have character, even if it was a bad one. That is why +the portraits of courtesans arouse attention in fashion that women whose +characters were undeveloped either for good or for evil will never +succeed in doing. + +It is not always easy to realise what Reynolds' work was like at its +best, because so many of his canvases have either lost their original +tints or have suffered the final indignity of restoration. In his search +after the secret of the Venetians he made many elaborate experiments at +the expense of his sitters, and pictures that were remarkable in their +year for colour that aroused the enthusiasm of connoisseurs grew old +even sooner than the sitters. His solid foundations decomposed, the +surface colour of many a celebrity is now as pale as the sitter's own +ghost may be supposed to be. Here there is perhaps some excuse for +looking at Reynolds' work from the literary standpoint, because though +the harmony of line may remain, the harmony of colour has gone beyond +recall, and there are some at least of Reynolds' pictures in which the +colour, had it been preserved, would have been the most effective +quality. At times the great artist's draughtsmanship was far removed +from excellence. And yet when criticism has said its last word, the name +and fame of Sir Joshua Reynolds will remain the pride of British art and +the admiration of the civilised world. + + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE DALZIEL, LTD., Watford + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41497 *** |