Here, Ian McIntyre traces Joshua Reynolds' journey from his humble origins as the seventh child of the Reverend Samuel Reynolds in Devon to the splendour and pomp of his funeral at St Paul's Cathedral in 1792. He examines in detail all aspects of his artistic and personal life, including his experimental history and fancy paintings, as well as his better-known work as a portrait painter. McIntyre also explains Reynolds' thinking about art history in the context of his life in 18th-century England. Reynolds was a central figure in the development of British art, and in this biography McIntyre explores fully the nature and extent of his contribution.

Sir Joshua Reynolds explores the ways in which portrait-painting is embedded in the social fabric of a given culture as well as in the social and professional transaction between the artist and his or her subject. In addition to providing a new view of Reynolds, Wendorf's book develops a thoroughly new way of interpreting portraiture.

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Sir Joshua Reynolds' reputation today rests principally on his portraits, his theoretical writings on art and his role as President of the Royal Academy. Yet in his own day Reynolds' subject pictures were among the most widely discussed British paintings of the century. This is the first book to concentrate on this important aspect of Reynolds' work. Covering the period from 1760 to 1830, it shows the way in which these pictures were inextricably linked to Reynolds' aims and practices as a painter, and to the way in which he was perceived by his peers.