Seven Discourses on Art | Page 4

Hudson, a successful portrait painter. Then he went back to
Devonshire and painted portraits, aided for some time in his education
by attention to the work of William Gandy of Exeter. When twenty-six
years old, in May, 1749, Reynolds was taken away by Captain Keppel
to the Mediterranean, and brought into contact with the works of the
great painters of Italy. He stayed two years in Rome, and in accordance
with the principles afterwards laid down in these lectures, he refused,
when in Rome, commissions for copying, and gave his mind to minute
observation of the art of the great masters by whose works he was
surrounded. He spent two months in Florence, six weeks in Venice, a
few days in Bologna and Parma. "If," he said, "I had never seen any of
the fine works of Correggio, I should never, perhaps, have remarked in
Nature the expression which I find in one of his pieces; or if I had
remarked it, I might have thought it too difficult, or perhaps impossible
to execute."
In 1753 Reynolds came back to England, and stayed three months in

Devonshire before setting up a studio in London, in St. Martin's Lane,
which was then an artists' quarter. His success was rapid. In 1755 he
had one hundred and twenty-five sitters. Samuel Johnson found in him
his most congenial friend. He moved to Newport Street, and he built
himself a studio--where there is now an auction room--at 47, Lincoln's
Inn Fields. There he remained for life.
In 1760 the artists opened, in a room lent by the Society of Arts, a free
Exhibition for the sale of their works. This was continued the next year
at Spring Gardens, with a charge of a shilling for admission. In 1765
they obtained a charter of incorporation, and in 1768 the King gave his
support to the foundation of a Royal Academy of Arts by seceders from
the preceding "Incorporated Society of Artists," into which personal
feelings had brought much division. It was to consist, like the French
Academy, of forty members, and was to maintain Schools open to all
students of good character who could give evidence that they had fully
learnt the rudiments of Art. The foundation by the King dates from the
10th of December, 1768. The Schools were opened on the 2nd of
January next following, and on that occasion Joshua Reynolds, who
had been elected President--his age was then between forty-five and
forty- six--gave the Inaugural Address which formed the first of these
Seven Discourses. The other six were given by him, as President, at the
next six annual meetings: and they were all shaped to form, when
collected into a volume, a coherent body of good counsel upon the
foundations of the painter's art.
H. M.

TO THE KING

The regular progress of cultivated life is from necessaries to
accommodations, from accommodations to ornaments. By your
illustrious predecessors were established marts for manufactures, and
colleges for science; but for the arts of elegance, those arts by which
manufactures are embellished and science is refined, to found an

academy was reserved for your Majesty.
Had such patronage been without effect, there had been reason to
believe that nature had, by some insurmountable impediment,
obstructed our proficiency; but the annual improvement of the
exhibitions which your Majesty has been pleased to encourage shows
that only encouragement had been wanting.
To give advice to those who are contending for royal liberality has been
for some years the duty of my station in the Academy; and these
Discourses hope for your Majesty's acceptance as well- intended
endeavours to incite that emulation which your notice has kindled, and
direct those studies which your bounty has rewarded.
May it please your Majesty, Your Majesty's Most dutiful servant, And
most faithful subject, JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

Gentlemen,--That you have ordered the publication of this Discourse is
not only very flattering to me, as it implies your approbation of the
method of study which I have recommended; but likewise, as this
method receives from that act such an additional weight and authority
as demands from the students that deference and respect, which can be
due only to the united sense of so considerable a body of artists.
I am, With the greatest esteem and respect, GENTLEMEN, Your most
humble And obedient servant, JOSHUA REYNOLDS

SEVEN DISCOURSES ON ART

A DISCOURSE

Delivered at the Opening of the Royal Academy, January 2nd, 1769, by
the President
Gentlemen,--An academy in which the polite arts may be regularly
cultivated is at last opened among us by royal munificence. This must
appear an event in the highest degree interesting, not only to the artists,
but to the whole nation.
It is indeed difficult to give any