Né à Plympton, dans le Devon, Reynolds fait son apprentissage auprès du portraitiste Thomas Hudson avant de passer plus de deux ans à Rome à partir de 1749, étudiant les maîtres anciens et s’imprégnant du « grand style » qu’il passera sa carrière à adapter au portrait anglais — posant ses modèles comme des figures classiques ou mythologiques plutôt que de simplement fixer leur ressemblance.
En 1768, il devient membre fondateur et premier président de la Royal Academy, poste depuis lequel il prononce ses influents « Discours » sur la théorie de l’art, et la même année George III le fait chevalier. Reynolds domine le portrait anglais pour le reste du siècle, élevant un métier autrefois vu comme un simple artisanat au rang de profession savante. Il meurt à Londres en 1792.
Tableaux de Reynolds exposés, musée par musée
L’Art Institute of Chicago
- Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces — Gallery 218 (1763–65)
L’Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
- Charity — Gallery 52 (1777)
- Charles Fitzroy, 2nd Duke of Grafton (1755 - 1757)
- George, 2nd Earl Harcourt, his wife Elizabeth, and brother William — Gallery 44 (1780)
- James Paine, Architect, and his Son, James — Gallery 49 (1764)
- Miss Elizabeth Keppel, later Mrs Thomas Meyrick — Gallery 52 (1782)
- Sketch for a Portrait of Captain Philemon Pownall, R.N — Gallery 52 (1762)
- Sketch of Sir Abraham Hume (1783 - 1833)
Le Cleveland Museum of Art
- Portrait of the Ladies Amabel and Mary Jemima Yorke — 203A British Painting and Decorative Arts (c. 1761)
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Londres
- Margaret Desenfans (neé Morris) — Room 3 (1757)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
- The Braddyll Family — Gallery 3 (1789)
Le Louvre
- Portrait de Francis George Hare (1786-1842) dit Master Hare et dit aussi Infancy — Salle 713 (4e quart du XVIIIe siècle (1788 - 1789))
- Portrait de Sir William Chambers (XVIIIe siècle (1700 - 1800))
Le Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Galleries of Scotland, Édimbourg
- John Hope, 1739 - 1785. — Modern One (In Storage) (1769)
- John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore — Portrait (On Display) (1765)
- Professor Adam Ferguson [Adhamh MacFhearghais], 1723 - 1816. Philosopher and author — Portrait (On Display) (1781/2)
- Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, 1739 - 1806. Banker and author — Portrait (On Display) (1786)
- The Ladies Waldegrave — National (On Display) (1780)
La National Gallery, Londres
- Anne, 2nd Countess of Albemarle — Room 34 (About 1760)
- Captain Robert Orme — Room 34 (1756)
- Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons — Room 34 (1773)
La National Portrait Gallery, Londres
- Anne Seymour Damer (née Conway) — Bath Preservation Trust, Bath (oil on canvas, based on a work of 1772-1773)
- Augustus Keppel, Viscount Keppel — Room 10 (oil on canvas, 1764-1765)
- David Garrick; Eva Maria Garrick (née Veigel) — Room 18 (oil on canvas, 1772-1773)
- Edmund Burke — Room 12 (oil on canvas, circa 1769 or after)
- Edward Boscawen — Hatchlands Park, Guildford (oil on canvas, based on a work of circa 1755)
- Horace Walpole — Room 18 (oil on canvas, circa 1756-1757)
- James Boswell — Room 18 (oil on canvas, 1785)
- John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute — Room 18 (oil on canvas, 1773)
- Mai (Omai) — The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA (oil on canvas, circa 1776)
- Maria Anne Fitzherbert (née Smythe) — Room 15 (oil on canvas, circa 1788)
- Oliver Goldsmith — Room 18 (oil on canvas, circa 1770 or after)
- Samuel Johnson — Room 3 (oil on canvas, circa 1756)
- Sir Joseph Banks, Bt — Room 18 (oil on canvas, 1771-1773)
- Sir Joshua Reynolds — Room 18 (oil on canvas, circa 1747-1749)
- Sir William Chambers — Room 18 (oil on canvas, circa 1756)
- Warren Hastings — Room 10 (oil on canvas, 1766-1767)
- William (Thomas) Beckford — Room 17 (oil on canvas, 1782)
La National Gallery of Art, Washington
- John Musters — M-059 (1777-c. 1780)
- Lady Caroline Howard — M-058 (1778)
- Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children — M-059 (1777-1779)
Royal Museums Greenwich, Londres
- Admiral Francis Holburne, 1704-71, and his son, Sir Francis, 4th Baronet, 1752-1820 — QH (1756)
- Captain Alexander Hood, 1726-1814 — QH (1763)
- Captain the Honourable Augustus Keppel, 1725-86 — QH (1752-1753)
- Commodore Sir William James, 1722-83 — Traders Gallery (1784)
- Portrait of a Naval Lieutenant, 1749 — QH (circa 1749)
La Tate Britain, Londres
- Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers — The Exhibition Age 1760-1815 (Room 4) (1769)
- Lady Bampfylde — Troubled Glamour 1760-1830 (Room 5) (1776–7)
- Mrs Hartley as a Nymph with a Young Bacchus — The Exhibition Age 1760-1815 (Room 4) (exhibited 1773)
- Portrait of a Man, probably Francis Barber — Troubled Glamour 1760-1830 (Room 5)
- The Age of Innocence — The Exhibition Age 1760-1815 (Room 4) (?1788)
- The Hon. Miss Monckton — Troubled Glamour 1760-1830 (Room 5) (1777–8)
- Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen — The Exhibition Age 1760-1815 (Room 4) (1773)
Victoria and Albert Museum, Londres
- Sarah Wedgwood — Room 1 (1782)
Salles et statut d’exposition vérifiés sur la base de collections de chaque musée.
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