Sir Joshua Reynolds

British, 1723 - 1792

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English painter (1723–1792)

Explore Selected Works

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Cornewall, c. 1785-1786, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.74

Lady Cornewall

Sir Joshua Reynolds · c. 1785-1786 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.74

A pale-skinned woman wearing a cream-white dress stands in front of a shadowy landscape in this vertical portrait painting. Facing us, the woman looks directly out with dark gray eyes under gently curving brows. She has a somewhat wide nose, slightly smiling, bow-shaped lips, flushed cheeks, and a pointed chin. Her brown hair is pulled back and up into a loose, tall style. A palm-sized medallion hanging from a gold chain falls low on her chest. The low neckline of the dress, which is pulled around the torso like a wrap dress, is lined in gold. The train of the long skirt is pinned between her crossed ankles and pools behind her feet. She wears white, sandal-inspired shoes wrapped with blue lines. A coat with voluminous sleeves in the same deep white color as the dress falls heavily from her shoulders. She leans her right elbow, to our left, against a squared stone or ledge, and her other hand is planted on her hip. A grassy lawn stretches back to trees framing a muted blue sky in the background behind her. Sunlight glows on the horizon in the distance behind her shoulders, but the rest of the landscape falls into deep shadow.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Elizabeth Compton, 1780-1782, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.97

Lady Elizabeth Compton

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1780-1782 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.97

A young girl with dark hair and pale skin, wearing a long white dress, kneels on the ground in a hilly, tree-lined landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The girl sits close to us, her body slightly angled to our left as she looks toward and reaches for a rose bush potted in a tall, brown urn along the left edge of the painting. She has pale gray eyes under faint brows and a delicate, pointed nose. Her round cheeks are flushed, and her pink bow lips are closed. Her chestnut-brown hair curls at the neck of her clothing, and bangs cover her forehead under a lacy white bonnet. Light glistens off her lace-edged black cape, which is tied at her throat. The full skirt of her white dress pillows like a cloud on the ground around her legs, and she has a wide, teal-blue sash around her waist. With her right arm, farther from us, she reaches out to touch a pink blossom with a gloved hand. The fingers of the butter-yellow gloves have been folded back. Her other hand rests with exposed fingers in a loose fist in near her knee. Behind her, gently rolling hills are dotted with leafy green trees silhouetted against a stretch of white sky just above the low horizon. Painted in smoky gray, ivory white, and pale, blush pink, the thin clouds against the topaz-blue sky fills the upper two-thirds of the picture. The painting is inscribed with gold paint in the lower right corner: “Lady Caroline Howard” and “Lady Cawdor.”
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Caroline Howard, 1778, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.106

Lady Caroline Howard

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1778 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.106

A clean-shaven, pale-skinned man with gray, powdered hair stands in the middle of a grassy landscape in this vertical portrait painting. He has smooth skin with hazel eyes under thick brows, a long nose, and his full, pale pink lips are closed. He stands facing us with his ankles crossed and his head turned slightly to look off to our right. A knee-length, ginger-brown jacket has a row of gold-colored buttons, the size of checkers pieces, down the front and lacy cuffs at the end of a row of three more buttons on each sleeve. One button is fastened across his chest over a white cravat and goldenrod-yellow vest patterned with tiny brown specks. His left hand, on our right, hangs down, holding a navy-blue tricorn hat next to navy breeches. White stockings cover his lower legs, and his black shoes have gleaming brass buckles. He leans his right hand, to our left, on the head of a wood walking stick, which is propped against that hip. The landscape around him is carpeted in shades of muted green with touches of golden yellow. White and dark pink flowers grow in clusters around his feet, and a grove of slender trees climbs a low hill on our right. Blue-green trees and vegetation stretch into the distance to meet a light blue body of water along the left edge of the painting. Low on the horizon, which comes about a fifth of the way up the composition, a mountain is hazy blue in the deep distance. Patches of vivid blue sky peek through swirling white, gray, and pale peach clouds that fill most of the background.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Musters, 1777-c. 1780, oil on canvas, Given in memory of Governor Alvan T. Fuller by The Fuller Foundation, Inc., 1961.2.2

John Musters

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1777-c. 1780 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.2.2

An elegantly dressed young woman, a little boy, girl, and a dog are gathered on a veranda in front of a sun-dappled landscape in this vertical portrait painting. All three people have pale skin with rosy cheeks. To our left, the woman sits facing us in front of a low, pewter-gray balustrade. She loosely embraces both children who lean onto her lap, to our right, as the shaggy, dark gray dog looks on. The woman has a slender, oval face, a long nose, rose-red lips, and hazel eyes that gaze just beyond our right shoulder. She wears a diaphanous, parchment-white gown belted at the waist and cinched at the elbow. Over the gown, a voluminous, dusty rose-pink mantle drapes over one shoulder and wraps around her hips and legs. Her dark gray hair is piled high on her head, and loosely painted strokes of garnet red suggest a scarf wrapped around the top. One long tendril loops over one shoulder. The boy closest to the woman rests his elbow along her lap so his body turns slightly away from her. His round face is framed by chestnut-brown curls and bangs, and he looks off to our right with blue eyes. He wears a cranberry-red jacket and breeches, with a gold and yellow striped vest. The wide collar of his white shirt is spread open, and one frilled cuff extends from the sleeve we can see. The woman holds the hand resting on her lap, and both she and the boy wrap their other arms around the little girl. The boy’s small fingers are tucked in at the back of the girl’s neck, just under the woman’s hand. The girl’s body turns as she leans into the boy, reaching one hand to grip his vest. Honey-blond curls frame her round face. She ducks her head as she looks to our right, a smile on her lips. She wears a cream-white gown belted with a celestial-blue sash. Facing away from us, the small dog sits and looks up at the trio. It has shaggy, charcoal-gray, tawny-brown, and white fur. Beyond the balustrade, tall trees covered in pine-green, gold, and brown leaves spread out on either side and recede toward hazy, lilac-purple mountains in the far distance.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children, 1777-1779, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.95

Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1777-1779 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.95

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Miss Beatrix Lister, 1765, oil on canvas, Gift of Margaret Mellon Hitchcock, 1995.3.1

Miss Beatrix Lister

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1765 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1995.3.1

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Annetta Coke, 1758, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2015.19.45

Annetta Coke

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1758 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.45

A young girl wearing a rust-red dress with a tight bodice and full, voluminous skirt sits in a hazy, garden-like setting in this vertical portrait painting. Her skin is pale with a greenish cast, but her cheeks are slightly flushed. Her body faces us but her head turns as she looks off to our left with dark eyes. She has faint brows, high cheekbones, a pointed chin, and her thin lips are parted. Her blond hair falls down the sides of her face, and she wears a brick-red bow across the top of her head. A second bow, the same color, is tied under her chin. Her dress is off the shoulders and cut low across her chest. The bodice, neckline, and half-length sleeves are lined with lace, and a sprig with forest-green leaves is tucked into the neckline. She holds a bouquet of red, pink, blue, and white flowers in her lap with both hands. The pointed tip of one gold shoe peeks out from under the hem of her skirt. The background around her is painted with blended tones of teal, aquamarine, and steel blue. A tree grows up along the right edge, and the dark canopy curves over her head, in the upper right corner. One rose lies in deep shadow near her feet.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, 1758, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.75

Lady Elizabeth Hamilton

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1758 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.75

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Head and Bust of a Woman, charcoal with pastel on laid paper, Gift of Myron A. Hofer in memory of his mother, Mrs. Charles Hofer, 1946.12.2

Head and Bust of a Woman

Sir Joshua Reynolds · · charcoal with pastel on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1946.12.2

Bibliography

1819

  • Northcote, James. The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2d. ed. rev. London, 1819.

1865

  • Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865.

1899

  • Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901.

1929

  • Hilles, Frederick Whiley. Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Cambridge, 1929.

1941

  • Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941.

1958

  • Hudson, Derek. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1958.

1975

  • Reynolds, Sir Joshua. Discourses on Art. Edited by Robert R. Wark. 2d ed. New Haven and London, 1975.

1986

  • Penny, Nicholas, ed. Reynolds. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986.

1992

  • Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 208-210.

1995

  • Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 172-196 [on Stuart's portrait of Reynolds]