Joshua Reynolds
British, 1723-1792

Portrait of Colonel Hugh Morgan, 1763
oil on canvas
29 x 24 in.

SBMA, Gift of Mrs. Virginia Rider
2010.1

RESEARCH PAPER

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792) was the father of British portrait painting. Reynolds, the most sought after and best paid British artist of the 1700's, produced more than 2000 paintings, including 1186 portraits and 27 self portraits. His style dominated art, artistic life, and the teaching of art through the 18th to 19th century.

YOUTH Sir Joshua Reynolds was born July 16, 1723 in Plympton, Devonshire, on the south west coast of England. His father, Reverend Samuel Reynolds, a Fellow of Balliol, Oxford, gave Joshua a classical education, including readings in Latin, but also recognized his son's ability in art. Young Reynolds lived in a house full of books. He was always aware of the value and prestige of learning, so he read all his life to improve his knowledge and became known as an intellectual. Famous friends from the literary / art field were writers Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, critic Horace Walpole, historian Edward Gibbon, actor David Garrick, and historical artist Angelica Kauffmann.

In 1740 (age 17) Reynolds spent 4 years, apprenticed to Thomas Hudson, a well known, conventional portraitist, in London. Hudson taught him to paint from the models directly to canvas. Reynolds always regretted his lack of training in making preliminary sketches.

His real education began in 1749, when he sailed to Rome, adding Florence, Venice and Paris to his travels. He studied with Pompeo Batoni, a successful "face painter" of the English Grand Tour travelers. By sketching Greek and Roman statuary, drawing from Italian frescoes, and trekking the halls of the Vatican, he became entranced by the Renaissance compositions of Raphael and Michelangelo. In Venice he absorbed the color, light and shading of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. As he succeeded in business he built a personal collection of paintings and drawings by Renaissance artists.

ADULT
By 1760 (age 32) Joshua Reynolds set up a studio in London in a grand house on Leicester Fields, (later Square), and became a successful painter for his entire life. To establish himself in a high, distinctive social position, Reynolds assumed the look of a well bred English gentleman. He cultivated his models / clients from the aristocracy, gentry and their children, state and political figures, military men, poets and writers, actors and scientists, upper-class ladies and women of questionable reputation. Between commissions he painted the children begging on his street. Reynolds worked hard all day from nine until his dinner at four, standing most of the time. A large mirror in his studio was placed so that a model could observe the progress of the painting.

Social interaction with the wealthy and famous men and women of the day helped commissions and sales. By 1755, to produce 100 paintings per year, he hired studio assistants to paint drapery, still lifes and landscaped backgrounds, which was a normal practice in England at the time. It usually took several hours for Reynolds to paint the face and hands, leaving the rest of the picture to be completed by his assistants. Studio assistants often produced copies of portraits for relatives and friends of the subjects, as was done for Colonel Hugh Morgan.

STYLE
European academies had long considered subjects, including classical history and literature, the Bible and mythology, as the highest form of art. British patrons preferred life-size full length portraits of themselves to scenes of classical history. Patrons also considered portrait painters only slightly above the level of dressmakers, so Reynolds attempted to elevate portraiture to the level of history painting by idealizing the patron's faces and bodies and including historical or mythological references. He used many poses from paintings by the great masters, antique sculptures or objects he had sketched. An example is Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse , 1784, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Ironically, in his best portraits, Reynolds ignored his own rules. His talent was in naturalizing faces. In 1770 Reynolds began creating portraits as a character study, the latest "invention". Instead of fixing up what he termed "deficiencies and deformities", he relied on an intimate, direct style of painting to capture the sitter's personality.

ACADEMY
Reynolds was one of the Founders of the Royal Academy (1768). The Academy became a place to learn painting as well as to show the work of its members. King George III knighted Reynolds at age 46. He would be the first president of the Royal Academy. His term lasted until he died. As President he delivered yearly speeches to the Academy called Discourses (1769 -1791) which were the most important art theory and art criticism of the time. The yearly Discourses recorded his thoughts about his problems such as line versus color, drawing, or poses and arrangements from Greco-Roman art or the Renaissance. He encouraged students to work hard, as he did, and take inspiration from high themes, avoiding the "low" of earlier artist, William Hogarth.

OLD AGE
In about 1780 (age 57), he became sensitive to changes taking place in society, showing a relaxed way of living versus the pomposity of the previous generation. He discontinued a Baroque style to pose subjects at three quarter angles, sitting before a curtain, with somber clothes and less ornamentation.

As his eyesight began to fail, he ceased working. Sir Joshua Reynolds died on February 23, 1792 (age 69) and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London. His pallbearers consisted of 3 dukes, 2 marquesses, 3 earls, 1 viscount and 1 baron. They were the mark of the intellectual eminence and the high social position of a gentleman that he had worked for and achieved.

PORTRAIT OF COLONEL HUGH MORGAN
Col. Morgan sits turned three quarters for his portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. His hair, set back on his head, is red-blonde, thin and curly. His eyebrows frame his large eyes that seem to be looking at the viewer. He has a good sized nose, thin lips with a full, cleft chin, and the demeanor of a person, confident and comfortable with him self and his place in society. His extra chin indicates the generous food portions he is able to afford.

Morgan's dazzling military coat, as with all British officer's uniforms, would have been colored with the expensive and long lasting red cochineal dye, a Spanish import from Oaxaca, Mexico. The uniform has a stand up collar with a knotted scarf (called a stock) wound around his neck. Two neck bands in gold braid edge the collar of the wide lapels. The black lapel facings are also edged with embroidered braid. The buttons may be brass or gold. Insignia of rank on the battle field could have been a gorget or a sash in the color of the commander, but are not visible. There is evidence of the color fading.

"It is likely that the ornate decoration of his brilliant red jacket was painted by one of Reynolds' assistants, perhaps Peter Toms, who we know was employed to paint fabrics during the 1750's and 1760's." * Surrounded by an ornate gilded frame, this expensive "head" or "bust" portrait would have cost 20 gold guineas at the time.

Hugh Morgan was born on May 1, 1727 and died in the service of King George III at age 35. Colonel Morgan fought at Belle Île, Brittany, France as a member of the 90th (or Colonel Morgan's) Irish Light Infantry of 1759-1763, (also called the 90th Morgan's Regiment of Foot). Soldiers were sent directly from Belle Île to the Caribbean to capture French sugar producing islands, such as Martinique (Jan - Feb 1762). Colonel Morgan died along with over 33 officers, attacking up the hills and down the ravines of the island of Martinique probably on Jan 24 or 25, 1762.

* SBMA curator, Dr. Eik Kahng

NOTE:
Date of the painting
"At the time of the portrait's execution, Colonel Morgan was celebrated in England as something of a war hero for his contributions to the successful campaigns against the French in the 1761 Siege of Belle Île and the 1762 Battle of Martinique in which he led the Irish Light Infantry to victory at the expense of his own life." Dr. Eik Kahng

However, a typed paper label on the back of the painting states "SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS / Portrait of Colonel Hugh Morgan / Painted in 1756." As a career soldier, he would have had his portrait painted before leaving for duty. That surmise could date the painting at 1761, before he left for Belle Île.

ADDITIONAL READINGS
The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds By Malcolm Cormack, Walpole Society, 1970.
Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds . By Joseph Farington and Martin Postle, Pallas Athene, 2005.
The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds . By John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe. Paul Mellon Center at Yale, 2000.
Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings By David Mannings, Martin Postle, Yale University Press, 2000.
Joshua Reynolds. The Life and Times of the First President of the Royal Academy . By Ian McIntyre, The Penguin Press. 2003.
Joshua Reynolds. The Creation of Celebrity . By Martin Postle, Tate, 2005.
Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Subject Paintings. By Martin Postle, Cambridge University
Press. 1995.
Discourses on Art. By Sir Joshua Reynolds and Robert R. Wark, paperback 1997.
Reynolds. By Ellis Waterhouse, Phaidon, 1973 SBPL# 759.2 R463 also same title, from 1941.

Prepared for the SBMA Docent Council by Susan Billig, July 2010


COMMENTS

In the history of 18th-century British art, Joshua Reynolds looms large. Acknowledged not only for his celebrity as the foremost portraitist of his generation, Reynolds also penned one of the most influential treatises on the art of painting, delivered in the form of discourses to the Royal Academy at the time of the annual distribution of prizes. He was, in fact, a key player in the formation of that august body and was elected its first President on December 14, 1768. Reynolds also realized his dream of attaining the social status of a gentleman, becoming wealthy enough to purchase his own manor house in a fashionable neighborhood of London, where he received such literati as the aesthetician, Horace Walpole (1717-97), the novelist Laurence Sterne (1713-68), and the historian Edward Gibbon (1737-94), all of whom he counted as his friends and whose likenesses he painted. Reynolds's fame and social standing belie his humble beginnings as the son of a Devonshire grammar school headmaster. The young Joshua was at first intended by his father for the profession of apothecary (the 18th-century British equivalent of a modern-day pharmacist) and was only dissuaded once he recognized his son's talent for drawing. 
 


This portrait by Reynolds is therefore a most welcome addition to the permanent collection. Our holdings in the area of British portraiture are sparse, with the portrait of Lieutenant Joshua Winslow by the American artist John Copley (1738-1815) and the portrait of Stephen Carmick by fellow American, Benjamin West (1738-1820) being the closest cousins. Twelve years their senior, Reynolds was undoubtedly a formative influence on both West and Copley. The greater naturalism we see in Colonel Morgan's facial expression was an innovation for which Reynolds is usually credited, replacing the more stately, decorous form of portraiture practiced during the Baroque period. The younger generation of portraitists followed Reynolds' precedent in this regard. 
 


If Reynolds aspired to the nobler genre of history painting, a category still revered in the 18th century as the apex of the hierarchy of genres according to academic doctrine, his practice as a portrait-painter is what paid his bread and butter. The appetite for portraiture in 18th-century Britain was steady, one could even say voracious, both for royalty and landed gentry. Every gentleman and lady wished their portraits to be painted for display in their drawing rooms.

By the time Reynolds set up his studio in London after returning from an extended trip to Italy in 1753, his only rivals were his first mentor Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), with whom he had apprenticed at the age of 18, Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). Reynolds may be ranked below only Gainsborough in painterly technique and especially, in his handling of landscape elements. But his success as the premier portraitist of his age can be argued on the basis of the high prices he was able to fetch, whatever his competition. We know from his surviving accounting books that this portrait fell into the category of those for which he charged 20 guineas starting in 1760. During the last decade of activity starting in 1782, a similar bust or three-quarters portrait cost 50 guineas. [2] Given his prolific output of such bust portraits and the near-factory-like contribution of studio assistants who filled in drapery, still-life, and landscape elements in more elaborate half- and whole-length portraits, it's no wonder that Reynolds grew wealthy enough to be able to afford the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed by the age of 37. 
 


From primary documentation of Reynolds' studio practice, we can be certain that he painted the sitter's face, capturing his full cheeks, dimpled chin, and air of self-possession. It is likely that the ornate decoration of his brilliant red jacket was painted by one of Reynolds' assistants, perhaps, Peter Toms, whom we know was employed to paint fabrics during the 1750s and 1760s. The use of studio assistants for fabric, still life, and landscape elements was a common practice during the 18th century, and should not be considered in any way detracting. 
One of the greatest ironies of Reynolds' obsession with the greatest artists of the past, from Michelangelo to Rembrandt, was his often disastrous experimentation with pigments. In an attempt to recreate the painterly effects of the works of art he copied so admiringly during his two years' stay in Rome, he often used pigments whose instability even during his lifetime was the object of much complaint. He frequently mixed pigments with wax, probably inspired by the buttery consistency he wished to emulate in Rembrandt's canvases. Unfortunately, such wax-based pigments often adhered badly to the canvas and would easily dislodge, especially when the canvas was relined. Another common problem was the fading of his colors, evidence of which can be found in the barely discernible background elements of this portrait. When compared with the documented studio replica, [3] commissioned by Colonel Morgan's family posthumously and reproduced in David Manning's magisterial catalogue raisonné, it is clear that our portrait has sunken in tonality throughout, rendering such details as the hair at his neck and the chair upon which he is seated barely discernible. 
Nevertheless, this portrait is considered to be in fair and stable condition. Through the documented studio replica that still resides with the descendants of the sitter, we can be certain of Colonel Morgan's identity. At the time of the portrait's execution, [4] Colonel Morgan was celebrated in England as something of a war hero for his contributions to the successful campaigns against the French in the 1761 Siege of Belle Ile and the 1762 Battle of Martinique, in which he led the Irish Light Infantry to victory although at the expense of his own life.

- Eik Kahng, 
Chief Curator & Curator of 19th- and early 20th-century European Art

PROVENANCE:
Perhaps F S Carré collection and others [1]; Sotheby's 13 November 1929, lot 41 bt Henderson; anonymous sale Sotheby's 23 June 1937, lot 30; Needham Galleries, New York; purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Ridder in 1952. 



EXHIBITION HISTORY:
Not publically exhibited to our knowledge. 


SELECTED LITERATURE:
Malcolm Cormack, The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds , The Walpole Society, 1970, p. 129
Ellis K. Waterhouse, Reynolds , Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner & Co. Ltd, London, p. 41, 1941
David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000, vol. 1, no. 1293 (as untraced). 

 


SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

Portraitist, art theorist, critic, and the first president of the Royal Academy, which he helped to found in 1768, Joshua Reynolds was arguably the most influential British artist of the 18th century. Knighted by King George III the following year, the "Discourses" that he delivered in lecture form to the Academy were published in 1778, ensuring the perpetuation of Reynolds' ideals. Of modest origin as the son of a school teacher, Reynolds' success as a portraitist was sufficient to make him a wealthy man by the age of 37. Like his contemporaries, George Romney and Thomas Gainsborough, the young Reynolds spent formative years in Italy, where he immersed himself in the study of the classical tradition and the Old Masters. He is credited with bringing a new sophistication and wit to the established tradition of portraiture in England by mobilizing his visual literacy to introduce a vivifying naturalism to the more static formulas established in the earlier Baroque period.

Our portrait is rather more modest than the monumental, full-length set pieces that Reynolds produced for British aristocracy. But it well exemplifies the psychological accessibility that he was able to convey in the sensitivity to his sitter's unremarkable but amiable features. By the 1750s, Reynolds was already successful enough to employ studio assistants to fill in landscape elements and details of dress. For example, the lavishly described red jacket, with its decorative gold braid, was likely painted by Peter Toms, who Reynolds employed for just such decorative touches during these years, reserving his own hand for the overall design of the composition and the sitter's face.

The sitter, Colonel Morgan, was considered something of a war hero in England for his contributions to the victory over the French at the Battle of Belle Ile in 1761. There is some question as to whether or not Reynolds completed this painting before or after the Colonel's heroic self-sacrifice at the head of the Irish Light Infantry in the 1762 Battle of Martinque, in which he lost his life.

- Crosscurrents, 2018