7 December: Boreham on Joshua Reynolds

Chivalry and Genius
On December 7, 1790, Sir Joshua Reynolds, his lifework done, bent over the manuscript of the very last lecture that he was to deliver at the Royal Academy. More than two hundred years ago a British naval officer, newly appointed to the command of the Mediterranean squadron, invited an aspiring young painter of 24 to be his guest on the battleship Centurion in order that he might inspect the best work of the old Italian masters. By that chivalrous act of nautical hospitality, Captain (afterwards Viscount) Keppel played a distinguished part in giving Sir Joshua Reynolds to the world. In his boyhood and youth, Joshua had received little or no encouragement. His father, the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, had vowed that his son should be a doctor. He could not close his eyes however to the realistic and convincing sketches of everything and everyone about him by which Joshua's dictation papers and copybooks were embellished. In due course these unconventional pencillings came under the notice of some of the most eminent artists of the period. They were saluted as the outpourings of genius. The little clergyman capitulated. He realised that the brilliant doctor of his dreams belonged to the realm of fiction and romance; he was a glorious ghost that could never now materialise. Old Samuel yielded with what grace he could muster to his son's unwavering desire, grimly hoping for the best.

At the age of eighteen, Joshua was apprenticed to Hudson, then the most illustrious painter of the day; but, after a connection that lasted for two years, the master grew jealous of the superior talents of his pupil and the pair parted in anger. Then, after groping his way as best he could, Captain Keppel's invitation opened for him a new vista upon life. Having grasped with avidity at every hint that the ancients could give him, he returned to England and quickly became one of the most notable figures in London society and one of the most skilful exponents of British art. After the passage of two centuries his name is still accorded not only honour but pre-eminence.

In Public Applauded; In Private Beloved
His career is without parallel. For 40 years he passed from triumph to triumph. He had the king, the Court, and the country at his feet, whilst men like Johnson, Goldsmith, Garrick, and Burke regarded his friendship as one of life's treasures. "If," wrote Dr. Johnson to Sir Joshua Reynolds, "if I should lose you, I should lose almost the only man I call friend." Asked to account for his unqualified admiration, Johnson explained that Reynolds was always the same. He never yielded either to feverish elation or doleful depression; he was the victim of no moods; he was always his own perfectly-poised and altogether charming self; he added to the enjoyment of any company by merely joining it. "He is," Johnson once told his famous cronies, "the most invulnerable man I know. If you should lose your temper with him you would find it extremely difficult to abuse him." There, as in a cameo, we see the man.

It was Sir Joshua Reynolds, as every student of that fascinating period knows, who formed the celebrated Literary Club, and who, by the sheer magnetism of his towering personality, held it together. In spite of his deafness, he cut a brave figure in eighteenth century society. The rhetoric of Burke was one of the glories of the age; and one of the finest passages in all those flights of oratory is the passage in which he pays tribute to the personal excellences of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Burke regarded Reynolds as the pattern on which all his contemporaries should model their behaviour.

Balancing Criticisms And Compensations
His name suggests two poignant regrets. The first is that he painted some of his masterpieces with pigments that have not stood the test of time: the second is that, in order to possess himself of the secrets of some of the medieval masters, he destroyed some of their priceless works. Against this, it must be remembered that Sir Joshua Reynolds was essentially an inquirer and an experimenter. If his investigations have, on the one hand, deprived us of some of the treasures of antiquity, they have, on the other, enriched us by many valuable discoveries. And if some of his ventures have so far failed as to allow a few of his paintings to fade, we must consider, on the other side of the ledger, the extent to which many of his experiments have augmented the possibilities of every studio. Ruskin, in his art criticisms, repeatedly maintains, firstly, that the greatest painting in the world is the painting of portraits, and, secondly, that Sir Joshua Reynolds was, of all portrait painters, the prince. In this peculiarly delicate and peculiarly difficult department of his craft, he stands without a rival.

Like most triumphs, his triumph was costly. He laid wealthy sacrifices on the altar of his art. His lengthy researches in a cold, damp, and draughty gallery in Rome led to a trouble that cost him his hearing, whilst, towards the close of his life, his sight also failed him. He died in 1792 and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral amidst a nation's lamentations. His old friend, Oliver Goldsmith, had predeceased him; but, unwilling to be excluded from the chorus of praise, Goldsmith had anticipated the obsequies by writing a more or less serious epitaph:

Here Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind,
He has left not a wiser or better behind;
His pencil was striking, restless and grand,
His manners were gentle, complying and bland.
Still born to improve us in every part,
His pencil our faces, his manner our heart;
To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering;
When they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing;
When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios and stuff,
He shifted his trumpet and merely took snuff.

Almost every painter of note has paid his tribute to the genius of Reynolds; but perhaps the most eloquent was that of Turner, who, on being told that he, too, would be buried at St. Paul's, begged that he might lie as near as possible to Sir Joshua Reynolds.

F W Boreham

Image: Joshua Reynolds