DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0015
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. xiii
Notwithstanding the master’s inadequate teaching, the pupil
made such progress that he aroused Hudson’s jealousy, who,
after two years’ apprenticeship, found a pretext for dismissing
him. Reynolds, with what he had learnt, continued to paint
down in Devonshire, taking the portraits of the local magnates.
How conventional his style was at first is proved by the follow-
ing anecdote. It was a favourite attitude with the portrait-
painters of the time to represent their model with one hand in
waistcoat and the hat under the arm, convenient because it dis-
pensed the artist from the difficult task of painting the hand.
Now it happened that one gentleman, whose portrait Reynolds
painted, desired to have his hat on his head. The picture,
which was quickly finished and posed in a commonplace attitude,
was done without much study. When sent home, it was
discovered, on inspection, that although this gentleman in his
portrait had one hat upon his head, there was another under
his arm.
For three years Reynolds painted in Devonshire, and
certainly improved greatly under his own instructions and
those of William Gandy of Exeter, so that some of the works
of this period are undoubtedly fine. During these first years
of seclusion he taught himself to think as well as to paint; and
that the labour of the mind is the most essential requisite in
forming a great painter is a doctrine he constantly inculcates in
his Discourses, distinguishing it from that of the hand. He
aptly applied the dictum of Grotius—“Nothing can come of
nothing”—to demonstrate the necessity of teaching.
The more Reynolds thought, however, the less was he satis-
fied with his own performances, and that he did not see himself
progress with greater speed no doubt fretted him the more, inas-
much as he had early declared it his fixed opinion that if he did
not prove himself the best painter of his time, when arrived at
the age of thirty, he never should. For the completion of his
studieshe unceasingly felt that he must visit Italy, and behold with
his own eyes those masterpieces ofwhichhehad heard so much.
Chance offered him a passage to the Continent in the flagship
of Viscount Keppel, and thus, at the age of twenty-six, May nth,
Notwithstanding the master’s inadequate teaching, the pupil
made such progress that he aroused Hudson’s jealousy, who,
after two years’ apprenticeship, found a pretext for dismissing
him. Reynolds, with what he had learnt, continued to paint
down in Devonshire, taking the portraits of the local magnates.
How conventional his style was at first is proved by the follow-
ing anecdote. It was a favourite attitude with the portrait-
painters of the time to represent their model with one hand in
waistcoat and the hat under the arm, convenient because it dis-
pensed the artist from the difficult task of painting the hand.
Now it happened that one gentleman, whose portrait Reynolds
painted, desired to have his hat on his head. The picture,
which was quickly finished and posed in a commonplace attitude,
was done without much study. When sent home, it was
discovered, on inspection, that although this gentleman in his
portrait had one hat upon his head, there was another under
his arm.
For three years Reynolds painted in Devonshire, and
certainly improved greatly under his own instructions and
those of William Gandy of Exeter, so that some of the works
of this period are undoubtedly fine. During these first years
of seclusion he taught himself to think as well as to paint; and
that the labour of the mind is the most essential requisite in
forming a great painter is a doctrine he constantly inculcates in
his Discourses, distinguishing it from that of the hand. He
aptly applied the dictum of Grotius—“Nothing can come of
nothing”—to demonstrate the necessity of teaching.
The more Reynolds thought, however, the less was he satis-
fied with his own performances, and that he did not see himself
progress with greater speed no doubt fretted him the more, inas-
much as he had early declared it his fixed opinion that if he did
not prove himself the best painter of his time, when arrived at
the age of thirty, he never should. For the completion of his
studieshe unceasingly felt that he must visit Italy, and behold with
his own eyes those masterpieces ofwhichhehad heard so much.
Chance offered him a passage to the Continent in the flagship
of Viscount Keppel, and thus, at the age of twenty-six, May nth,