When Sir Joshua Reynolds died, wrote the man who most disliked him, the poet and engraver William Blake, "All Nature was degraded;/ The King drop'd a tear into the Queen's Ear,/ And all his Pictures faded."
The factual truth of this can be assessed by anyone who visits the Reynolds retrospective now running at London's Royal Academy. Reynolds' paintings have long since faded, mimicking his reputation. "Sir Sploshua," as others called him for his generous and Rubenesque handling of wet paint surfaces, had an imp of fakery lodged in his breast. He was determined to produce, for his clientele of the...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
