Art UK has updated its cookies policy. By using this website you are agreeing to the use of cookies. To find out more read our updated Use of Cookies policy and our updated Privacy policy.

(b Plymouth, Devon, 22 Oct. 1746; d London, 13 July 1831). English painter and writer. He was largely self-taught until he moved to London in 1771 and became the pupil and assistant of Reynolds, a fellow Devonian. From 1777 to 1780 he was in Italy, where he gained ambitions to be a history painter; however, his exercises in this field, notably for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, are ponderous and awkward. As a portraitist he was an uninspired follower of Reynolds, and it is as a writer that he has the main claim to distinction: he was something of a character and a lively commentator on the artistic scene. Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1813; supplement 1815) is his major publication.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


Do you know someone who would love this resource?
Tell them about it...