Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/520

Rh 502 R E Y R E Y known as Binjh, which overlook the valley of the Ganges. This plateau is for the most part cultivated and well peopled; the soil varies from a rich black loam to a sandy laterite ; but in the greater part of this area good land predominates, and rich harvests both of kharif and rabi crops are generally obtained. Water is plentiful, and the country is full of large tanks and reservoirs, which, however, are not used for irrigation purposes; the only system of wet cultivation which has any favour with the villagers is that of bandhs, or mounds of earth raised at the lower ends of sloping fields to retain the rain water for some time after the monsoon rains cease. The Rewah plateau is reported to possess every natural advantage, and the whole of its area could be brought under rich culti- vation. The country to the south of the Kaimur Hills comprises by far the largest portion of the state; but here cultivation is restricted to the valley between the hills and the Sone river, and to a few isolated patches in scattered parts of the wild and magnificent forest wastes. Rewah is rich in minerals and forests. Operations lately undertaken to determine the extent of its coal fields have proved highly successful. Until very recently Rewah possessed no roads to speak of or means of internal com- munication ; but good progress is now being made, and by this means it is anticipated that the state will soon develop its rich resources. The principal river is the through the state in a north and north-easterly direction into Mirzapur district ; another important river is the Tons ; but none of the rivers are navigable. The average rainfall at Rewah is about 57^ inches. tnales, 650,942 females) ; Hindus in the same year numbered 971,788, Mohammedans 31,107, and aboriginals 302,107. The inhabitants of Rewah are reported to be a singularly simple, pleasant, and well-disposed race, and they greatly appreciate the efforts which are now being made to benefit them. The revenue of the state in 1882-83 amounted to 110,946, of which the land contributed 71,798. The chief town is Rewah, situated in 24 31' 30" N. lat. and 81 20' E. long., and containing in 1S81 a population of 22,016. The state came under British influence in 1812, when the first formal treaty was made with Jai Sink Deo, by which he was acknowledged as ruler of his dominions and was brought under the protection of the British Government. The raja, however, failed to fulfil his obligations, and a second treaty was made con- firming the first and defining more clearly his relations with the British Government. The administration of Rewah is now entirely in the hands of the British owing to the death of the maharaja Raghuraj Sinh and the succession of his infant son. REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA (1723-1792), English por- "trait-painter, was born at Plympton Earl, in Devon- shire, on July 16, 1723. He was educated by his father, a clergyman and the master of the free grammar school of the place, who designed his son for the medical profession. But the boy showed a distinct preference for painting. He was constantly copying the plates in Dryden's Plutarch and Cat's Emblems, and poring over Jonathan Richardson's Treatise on Art. At the age of eight, aided by the instructions in The Jesuit's Perspective, he made a sufficiently correct drawing of the Plympton schoolhouse, which greatly astonished his father. It was at length decided that the lad should devote himself to art, and in October 1741 he proceeded to London to study under Thomas Hudson, a mediocre artist, a native of Devon- shire, who was popular in the metropolis as a portrait painter. Reynolds remained with Hudson for only two years, acquiring with uncommon aptitude the technicalities of the craft, and in 1743 he returned to Devonshire, where, settling at Plymouth Dock, he employed himself in portrait painting. By the end of 1744 he was again in London. He was well received by his old master, from whom he appears previously to have parted with some cold- ness on both sides. Hudson introduced him to the artists' club that met in Old Slaughters, St Martin's Lane, and gave him much advice as to his work. Reynolds now painted his portraits of Captain Hamilton, father of the marquis of Abercorn, of Mrs Field, of Alderman Tracey, now in the Plymouth Athenaeum, and of the notorious Miss Chudleigh, afterwards duchess of Kingston. To this period, or per- haps to one slightly later, is referable the artist's excellent oval bust portrait of himself, which was included in the Grosvenor Gallery Exhibition of 1884. At Christmas 1746 he was recalled to Plympton to attend the last hours of his father, after whose death he again established him- self, now with two of his sisters, at Plymouth Dock, where he painted portraits, and, as he has himself recorded, derived much instruction from an examination of some works by William Gandy of Exeter, whose broad and forcible execution must have been an excellent corrective to the example of Hudson's dry and hard method. Meanwhile the pleasant urbanity of manner which dis- tinguished Reynolds throughout life had been .winning for him friends. He had made the acquaintance of Lord Edgcumbe, and by him was introduced to Captain (after- wards Viscount Keppel), who was to play an important and helpful part in the career of the young painter. Keppel was soon made aware of Reynolds's ardent desire to visit Italy ; and, as he had just been appointed to the command of the Mediterranean squadron, he gracefully invited the artist to accompany him in his own ship, the " Centurion." The offer was gladly accepted. While Keppel was conducting his tedious negotiations with the dey of Algiers, relative to the piracy with which that potentate was charged, Reynolds resided at Port Mahon, the guest of the governor of Minorca, painting portraits of the principal inhabitants ; and, in December 1749, he sailed for Leghorn, and thence, with all eagerness, made his way to Rome. He has confessed that his first sight of the works of Raphael was a grievous disappointment, and that it required lengthened study before he could appreciate the correctness and grace of the master. By the dignity and imagination of Michelangelo he was deeply impressed ; to the end of life the great Florentine remained for Reynolds the supreme figure in art ; his name was con- stantly upon his lips, and, as he had wished, it was the last that he pronounced to the students of the Royal Academy. Of the influence of Correggio, of his sweetness of expression, of his method of chiaroscuro, we find frequent traces in the works of Sir Joshua, especially in his paintings of children ; but after all it was from the Venetians that the English painter learned most. His own strongest instincts were towards richness and splendour of colour, and in these qualities he found unsurpassable examples in the produc- tions of Titian and Veronese. While in Rome he avoided, as far as possible, the temptation to spend his time in copying specific pictures, which he considered " a delusive kind of industry," by which " the student satisfies himself with an appearance of doing something, and falls into the dangerous habit of imitating without selecting." His method of becoming acquainted with the old masters, and of assimilating their excellences, was by diligent examination and comparison, aided by studies of general effect and of individual parts. His knowledge of the Roman art treasures was dearly purchased. While working in the corridors of the Vatican he caught a severe cold, which resulted in the deafness that clung to him for the rest of his life, and rendered necessary the ear-trumpet which he used in conversation. After a residence of two years in Rome, Reynolds, in the spring of 1752, spent four months in visiting Parma, Florence, Venice, and other important cities of Italy; and, after a brief stay in Devonshire, he established himself as
 * Sone, which, receiving the Mahanadi from the south, flows
 * > The population of the state in 1881 was 1,305,124 (654,182