Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 Excerpt:...and which Sir Joshua used, in later years, to say was equal to a painting of Rembrandt. Young Reynolds's taste for drawing was known to Mr. Gandy; and he used to converse much with him upon the subject, and he gave him some information. Joshua was an attentive pupil, and listened with pleasure to the directions for mixing his colors, and the method of laying them on the canvass; or he would delight in hearing anecdotes of painters and pictures, or anything relating to his profession which the artist had to tell. When young Reynolds had for some years pursued his studies with his father, it became time for him to make choice of his future employment in life. Mr. Reynolds much wished to educate him for a physician, and Sir Joshua used afterward to say, that so fully had he determined on diligent study, and so earnestly did he desire success, that had the plan been pursued, he should have been as eminent for his skill in physic as he then was in painting. The inclinations of the youth turned, however, in another direction; for how could he forget the wondrous Raffaelle, and cease to long to be like him 1 He had talked and thought of art and artists during the whole course of his boyhood, and what were Latin and Greek, and anatomy and physic, compared to the lines of beauty traced by Michael Angelo, or Rubens, or Titian 1 A kind neighbor, a Mr. Crouch, who well knew the longings after excellence in painting which the youth had cherished so fondly, and who had looked with admiration on his attempts in drawing, interfered during the deliberation. He represented to his father that it would be better to let Joshua follow a pursuit to which he seemed so attached; and reminded him how far more likely he would be to succeed in his profession, and to spend his life hap...