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 Hon | Portrait of Miss Anna Ward with Her Dog | Portrait of James Boswell | Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Hamilton | Marquess of Granby |
Related Artists:
Emmanuel de Witte
Dutch 1617-1692 Emmanuel de Witte Gallery Dutch painter. He was one of the last and, with Pieter Saenredam, one of the most accomplished 17th-century artists who specialized in representing church interiors. He trained with Evert van Aelst (1602-57) in Delft and in 1636 joined the Guild of St Luke at Alkmaar, but he was recorded in Rotterdam in the summers of 1639 and 1640. In October 1641 his daughter was baptized in Delft, where he entered the Guild of St Luke in June 1642 and lived for a decade, moving to Amsterdam c. 1652. He began his long career as an unpromising figure painter, as can be seen in the Vertumnus and Pomona (1644) and two small pendant portraits (1648; all Rotterdam, Mus. Boymans-van Beuningen).
Richard Wilson
1713-1782 British Richard Wilson Galleries
jean-simeon chardin
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, född 2 november 1699 i Paris, död 6 december 1779 i Paris, var en fransk målare. Mästare på stilleben och genrebilder. Chardins blygsamma läggning, personliga stil och valet av motiv från medelklassens vardagsliv försenade hans succe i Bouchers och Fragonards Frankrike, men 1728 invaldes han i Franska akademin samtidigt som hans genrebilder genom gravörernas försorg blev populära. När 1700-talets hovkonst inte längre var populär, steg Chardins popularitet. De enkla kompositionerna, de ensamma gestalterna i form av köksflickor i arbete eller barn försjunkna i sina lekar, påverkade målare som på 1800-talet målade vardagsmotiv. Manet influerades starkt av den lugna klarheten i Chardins stilleben, liksom Courbet hade påverkats före honom.