The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Ll.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., etc., Late President of the Royal Academy: Volume 1

Book excerpt: A fellow Devonian, James Northcote (1746-1831) was an admirer and pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose two-volume biography he published in 1813-15. Reissued here is the 'revised and augmented' second edition of 1818. Northcote is self-deprecating as to his fitness for the task, but claims that a worthy biography of a great artist can be written only by another artist, and his close personal knowledge of his subject and the circle in which Reynolds moved gives him insights, as well as providing anecdotes, which would not be available to a more 'professional' author. Volume 1 covers the first fifty years of Reynolds' life, and includes accounts of Reynolds' development as an artist, his growing fame, the founding of the Royal Academy and the first six of his Discourses on Art (also reissued in this series), which Northcote defends against claims that they were not written by Reynolds himself.