JOSHUA REYNOLDS

     Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 1792) replaced William Hogarth as the dominant painter in the second half of the 18^th century. He was born in Devonshire on July 16, 1723, and was educated by his father, a clergyman and the master of the free grammar school in the place. He wanted his son to be a doctor, but the boy wanted to paint very much. At the age of 8 he made a perfect drawing of the school. And that astonished his father greatly.

     When Reynolds was 18 he went to London to study art under Thomas Hudson, an artist and portrait painter. In two years he began to paint portraits. Reynolds was very witty, clever and friendly. He got on well with people. One of his friends suggested a trip to Italy. There Reynolds spent some years, learning the art of old masters. He was deeply impressed by Michelangelo. To the end of his life Michelangelo remained for Reynolds the supreme figure in art.

     After his coming back to London, Reynolds painted a lot of portraits, as there were many women who wanted to appear as angels and men who wished to appear as heroes and philosophers in his pictures. His popularity was great. Famous scientists, writers, politicians, philosophers visited his hospitable house. He also played a very important role in politics.

     In 1760 the London world of art was greatly impressed by the public picture show of the Society of Artists. That was the idea of Reynolds. Then the artists asked for help and patronage from King George III to found the Royal Academy. And in 1768 the academy was founded. Reynolds was its first president. Later he was appointed the King’s painter.

     Reynolds’ life was peaceful and happy. He was a prosperous and successful artist, and he created his wonderful portraits. He idealized the faces of the sitters, but they did not lose the likeness. He wanted to paint not only a portrait, but a historical picture or allegory, that’s why he dressed the sitters in period costumes and even introduced mythological or allegorical overtones.

Reynolds’ best paintings are "The Portrait of the Actress Sarah Siddons”, "Venus and Cupid”, "Captain Robert Orme”, the portraits of the King’s family, etc.

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH

     Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 1788) painted portraits and landscapes. He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1727. His father was a cloth merchant; his mother painted flower-pictures and approved of her son’s desire to draw. His father sent Thomas to London to study art when he was 12. He stayed in London for 8 years. In 1746 he fell in love with a charming girl, Margaret Burr, and married her. Two daughters were born of this marriage.

     Gainsborough’s career as a painter started very successfully. He painted both small-sized portraits and landscapes. Then he moved to Bath, which was the general resort of wealth and fashion at that time. In Bath Gainsborough became a fashionable artist, portraying the aristocracy, wealthy merchants and artists. He did not produce small paintings any more, but full-length, life-size portraits. He liked music very much, and there he began to learn playing some musical instruments, for example the violoncello, the harp, and the hautboy. His pictures were musical too.

     First Gainsborough began to exhibit his paintings with the London Society of Artists. He was a member of the Royal Academy, but then he broke off relations with it. He moved his paintings to a house in Pall Mall (a street in London) and exhibited them there every year.

     Thomas Gainsborough was tall, fair-haired handsome man, very impulsive and easily irritated, but generous and kind. He was a self-taught artist and did not make the traditional trip to Italy to learn art. He relied on his own remarkable instinct in painting. But he had a considerable influence on the artist of the English school.

     Thomas Gainsborough was famous for the truth, elegance and refinement of his portraits and for the simple beauty of his landscapes. He painted 800 portraits and more than 200 landscapes. He created a form of art in which the sitters and the background merge into a single whole. They are in direct contact, in the harmony of mood.

     Among the finest works are the portraits of Mrs. Gainsborough, Mrs. Sheridan, the actress Sarah Siddons, his self-portrait, "At the Cottage Door”, "Going to the Market”, etc. Gainsborough was also famous for the so-called "Blue Portraits”, for example "Lady in Blue”, "The Blue Boy” and others. His blue colours are very expressive and unusual. It is a combination of tones such as silver, mother-of-pearl, lilac, pink. His works are poetic, elegant and graceful. His landscapes started the remarkable English landscape painting.

JOHN CONSTABLE

     One of the greatest English landscape painters was John Constable (1776 – 1837). He was born in Suffolk on June 11, 1776. His father was a farmer and he sent his son to work in one of his windmills. While working, John observed changes in the weather, and thanks to that he got excellent knowledge of atmospheric changes and effects. He liked to make drawings of the scenery around him.

     Constable was sent to London to learn art. He tried to perfect himself as a painter. In 1799 he became a student of the Royal Academy. He worked very hard and in a few years’ time he exhibited his finest pictures. His power at the time, though unrecognized, was at its highest. His first masterpieces were "The Stratford Mill”, "The Hay Wain”, "Salisbury Cathedral”, "The Waterloo Bridge”, etc.

     Some of Constable’s pictures were taken to Paris and created a profound sensation there. He received two gold medals; his pictures were honorably hung in the Louvre. His merits were recognized in France, but not in England. His studio was full of unsold pictures. After his death the pictures greatly increased in value.

     The life of Constable was as closely connected with his mill as the life of a snail with its shell. He never looked for effects in nature; he painted nature as he saw it. Almost all his pictures are painted in one and the same place. Thanks to that he could learn about the atmospheric changes, the influence of light and the weather. He was one of the first to understand that a small place could yield a lot of landscapes depending on the lighting and the time of day. Many years later Claude Monet (a French painter) followed up that idea in the series of landscapes with a haystack.

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