Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.
by William Biggs Boulton (9781150379819)

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1905 Original Publisher: Methuen Subjects: Painters Art / General Art / History / General Art / European Art / Individual Artist Art / Techniques / Painting Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III ST. MARTIN'S LANE AND GREAT NEWPORT STREET 1753-1759 SOME of Reynolds's biographers have been at pains to explain how it was that upon landing in England he went to his native west country; Northcote, for instance, says he was in indifferent health, and sought his native air as a cure. Altogether it seems natural that Reynolds should have wished to see his friends after his long absence; in any case, he went to Plymouth in October of 1753; and made a stay of three months. What his domestic arrangements were we do not know. His sister Frances was probably staying either with Mrs. Palmer or with Mrs. Johnson at Torrington, and it is likely that Reynolds took apartments in Plymouth. Here, at any rate, he set to work, and among the first canvases he painted was a head of the eminent Dr. Mudge of that town, a portrait for which he received five guineas. Leslie thinks that this and another head of a young lady were the only portraits he painted at Plymouth. Dr. Mudge's picture is still in the hands of his descendants, and those who have seen it describe it as a noble head, broadly and ably painted. It is, however, remarkable as an early portrait of Reynolds in which the carnations have utterly disappeared, either from his own faulty methods, or by the efforts of the restorers and cleaners who have destroyed so much of his work. It is said that while Reynolds was at Plymouth his friend Lord Edgcumbe urged him strongly to establish himsel...

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