Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/72

 limbs, which is often faulty, owing to his want of training; but no one was more conscious of this defect, or more clever in concealing it. Owing to the employment of fugitive pigments and constant experiments in vehicles, many of his pictures faded so soon after they left his easel that Horace Walpole suggested that they should be paid for by annuities so long as they lasted. Injudicious cleaning has ruined others, but many have stood well, and it may be said now, as was said in his lifetime, that a faded Sir Joshua is finer than a fresh work by another hand. The beauty of his disposition and the nobility of his character were equal to his talents. Without any physical advantages—for he was neither tall nor handsome, and had the great social drawback of deafness—he secured without seeking, and maintained without effort, a position in society which is almost unrivalled. Treating all men on the plain level of common human nature and unactuated by any prejudice, he mixed, as by natural charter, with all classes. His principal passports were kindliness, sincerity, and tolerance; but these were aided by a ready sympathy, a well-informed mind, gentle manners, and invariable tact and common-sense. The charm of his presence and conversation was all the more irresistible because it was unforced and unfeigned. He was a born diplomatist, and avoided friction by natural instinct; a philosopher who early learnt and consistently acted on the principle not to concern himself about matters of small importance. He was thus able to smooth his own path and that of others, and to preserve his mind from mean and paltry thoughts. The keynote of his whole life was his art—whether consciously or not he acted up to the ideal of a perfect portrait-painter—whose business was not to criticise but to observe, not to direct but to reflect the currents of society. ‘I go,’ he said, ‘with the great stream of life.’ For the purpose of such a career the hours which he spent in his painting-room were not more profitable than those he spent out of it. It is but natural that such a life should expose him to charges of poco-curanteism, and that it should tend to the repression of much that is salient and picturesque in personal character; but without his dispassionate view of things that did not vitally affect his profession or his friends, he would have been neither the great artist nor the great gentleman that he was.

The numerous anecdotes of his life give many instances of his charity in thought and deed to poor people, to struggling artists, to his friends and to their friends; and he never turned his back on an associate in trouble, political or social, as is shown by his conduct to Wilkes, to Baretti, to Warren Hastings, and to Samuel Foote.

His literary works consist mainly of his ‘Discourses,’ which probably received some polish from Johnson, Burke, Malone, and others before they were published, but were essentially his own both in style and thought. They were the result less of reading than experience, and are distinguished by that broad and happy generalisation which was the characteristic also of his art. Perhaps the best known of them is the fourteenth (1788), in which he pronounced his fine and generous tribute to the memory of Gainsborough. They contain advice to students which is of permanent value, expressed in language which could scarcely be improved. If we make some allowance for the time at which he wrote, most of his judgments on pictures and artists may be accepted now. His ideas are generally sound, and if there sometimes seems a discrepancy between his practice and his theory it is greatly due to the fact that he was a portrait-painter, while his addresses dealt with ideal art. This discrepancy would be more perceptible if he had not applied the style of the greatest ideal artists to his own portraits. The spirit of Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Correggio, and of his favourite Bolognese masters is often felt in his most original portraits. The least valuable of the ‘Discourses’ is that upon sculpture. They have been frequently reprinted, and cannot be neglected by any student of art criticism. An excellent summary of them is given in Phillips's ‘Sir Joshua Reynolds.’

In March 1795 many of his pictures by old masters were sold by auction at Christie's for 10,319l. 2s. 6d.; in 1796 the contents of the studio fetched 4,535l. 18s. at Greenwood's; in 1798 a further sale of his ‘old masters’ took place at H. Phillips's; and in 1821 the pictures, drawings by old masters, and prints retained by Lady Thomond brought 15,040l. at Christie's. Since then Sir Joshua's pictures, especially the female portraits, have increased enormously in value. His portrait of Lady Betty Delmé was sold at Christie's in 1894 for eleven thousand guineas. The largest sum received by Sir Joshua for a portrait picture was probably the seven hundred guineas paid him for the great Marlborough group. Horace Walpole said he paid more for the group of the Ladies Waldegrave, but this is not credited. The Empress Catherine paid him fifteen hundred guineas for the ‘Infant Hercules,’ and added a gold box with her cipher in diamonds.