“If you have great talents, industry will improve
them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their
deficiency.”—English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 4th
edition: Discourses on Art (1809)
This comment by Sir Joshua Reynolds—and, equally important, the manner
in which he conducted his career—should inspire those of us who
are, at best, modestly talented, and wracked with self-doubt.
In an age when England was far more marked by class
and privilege than it is now, Reynolds’ rise to prominence was extraordinary.
He was the seventh child of a clergyman and headmaster—not exactly a promising
background for someone who would make his living painting the governmental and
social elite. But his father immersed him in the life of the intellect, and he
brought that self-consciousness to his craft.
His principles were twofold, and simple: learn from
the best, and work hard. To those ends, Reynolds spent two years in Italy,
absorbing the best of, among others, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Guido
Reni—then, after his return to England in 1752, applied what he learned, again
and again—some 2,000 portraits plus numerous subject pictures throughout the
rest of his career, including 150 portraits in 1759 alone.
Was Reynolds a genius? His contemporaries, and many
for years after, thought so, though a good deal of modern estimates don’t place
him so highly. But his output was hardly hack work, and he gave the best of
himself not only to his art, but to influencing others to think of this line
of business as a high craft—not only through his Discourses on Art, but through the Royal Academy, as its first
President.
Because of unstinting devotion to craft, Reynolds’
rather modest beginnings were far behind him at the time of his funeral, where
his pallbearers included three dukes, two marquesses, three earls, a viscount
and a lord.
(The attached image is a self-portrait of Reynolds around
the age of 24. This blog post by Mark Hallett offers some interesting takes on the different interpretations of
this far-from-obvious painting.)
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