Historical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical Linguistics

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Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)

(source: http://www.jamessmithnoelcollection.org/images/sir%20joshua%20reynolds.jpg)

Introduction

As a portrait painter, Reynolds had the pleasure of seeing and conversing with all the famous people of his time. From 1777 on, he painted a number of portraits for the Thrales’s library at Streatham Park. These portraits not only display Henry, Hester, and their eldest daughter Queeney but also their guests. Reynolds was one of these quests. He belonged to the so-called Steatham circle, or “Streathamites” as Fanny Burney called them. Other members of this circle were Giuseppe Baretti, Edmund Burke, Charles Burney, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson.

The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds (2000) shows Reynolds’ letters written to his fellow Streathamites. Although the edition does not contain any letters written to Oliver Goldsmith and Giuseppe Baretti, both men played an important role in Reynolds’ life. It was Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) who introduced Reynolds to James Boswell. The two men became close friends. Reynolds encouraged Boswell to finish his Life of Johnson and it was to him that Boswell dedicated his work. Oliver Goldsmith’s Deserted Village was dedicated to Reynolds as well. Giuseppe Baretti (1719-1789) assisted Reynolds with his Italian correspondence (Reynolds’s letters to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Royal Gallery at Florence, for instance) He also published a Dictionary of the English and Italian Language.

Reynolds was not fond of writing letters. In a letter to Boswell he wrote: ‘if I felt the same reluctance in taking a Pencil in my hand as I do a pen, I should be as bad a Painter as a correspondent’ (ed. Ingamells and Edgcumbe 2000:112). Reynolds’s favourite niece Theophila Palmer (1757-1848), later Gwatkin, was told: ‘I intended writing to you from London when I had the pleasure of receiving your last Letter and have still a Frank for that purpose but you know what a bad correspondent I am, I hope you will never interpret my neglect to want of that affection which I shall ever have for my dearest Offy’ (ed. Ingamells and Edgcumbe 2000:121), and to Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) he wrote: ‘I have <a> sitter waiting so you must excuse the Blots’.

In editing his Seven Discourses Reynolds was helped by Samuel Johnson. This could be the reason why the fourth edition of Johnson’s Dictionary included several examples from Reynolds’s Fourth Discourse. Edmond Malone (1741-1812) helped Reynolds prepare for his publications as well. Reynolds wrote to him about his Thirteenth Discourse: ‘I wish you would run your eye over my Discourse’, ‘I wish that you would examine it with a critical eye, in regard to grammatical correctness, the propriety of expression, and the truth of the observations. Malone was Reynolds' first biographer, and The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds was published in 1797.

• McIntyre, Ian (2003). Joshua Reynolds: The Life and Times of the Royal Academy's First President. London: Allen Lane.
• Postle, Martin (ed.) (2005). Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of a Celebrity. London: Tate Publishing.
• Wendorf, Richard (1996). Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Painter in Society. London: National Portrait Gallery.

correspondence

• Ingamells, John and Edgcumbe, John (2000). The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Yale: Yale University Press.

language

• Karlijn Navest, A painter’s will to please: Reynolds’ use of yours affectionately/yours sincerely

   

For additions, contact Karlijn Navest.