Master Henry Hoare (Toledo Museum of Art): a child portrait of the banking Hoare family.

Mrs Jane Braddyll (Wallace Collection): a portrait of the wife in the Braddyll Family group (see the article entry); at the Wallace.

Dr John Ash (Birmingham Museums): a portrait of the founder of Birmingham's General Hospital.

Self-portrait (Kenwood House): a self-portrait in the Iveagh Bequest.

Self-portrait (Royal Collection): a self-portrait in the royal collection.

Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bt (Art Institute of Chicago): a portrait of the Governor of Madras.

The picture

Oil on canvas, 76.5 × 63.8 cm — Tate (and National Gallery). A small girl in a white dress sits on a bank beneath a tree, her hands crossed on her breast, her hair loose, her bare feet tucked under her, looking out at the viewer with an expression of grave sweetness. The title, added later, made her the image of childhood innocence itself; the picture became the most reproduced English painting of the nineteenth century and one of the best-loved and most contested images in British art.

The child and the title

The picture is a fancy picture — a single child, unnamed, in a mood rather than a role — and the identity of the sitter is uncertain (she may be the painter's great-niece Theophila Gwatkin, or a model). The title The Age of Innocence was not Reynolds's but was attached in the nineteenth century, and it fixed the picture's meaning: the child as the emblem of innocence, the cult of childhood that Rousseau had launched and the Victorians made a religion. The crossed hands, the loose hair, the bare feet, the grave direct gaze compose an image of untroubled early childhood that two centuries found irresistible.

The reproduction and the reaction

Through engraving, chromolithograph, biscuit-tin and Sunday-school card, The Age of Innocence became the definitive image of Victorian childhood — reproduced past the point of visibility, sentimentalised, and, in the twentieth-century reaction against Victorian sentiment, scorned as the type of the saccharine. Its very popularity has made it hard to see; the fading of the flesh (the fugitive carmines again) has not helped. But seen clear — a late Reynolds, painted as he was going blind, of a child on a bank — it is a tender and serious thing, the particular child, for once, unraised by allusion, painted simply.

History

Painted c. 1785–88; acquired for the nation, shared between Tate and the National Gallery. Among the most reproduced English pictures ever made.

What to look at

The crossed hands; the loose hair; the bare feet; the grave sweet gaze. Then the title, added later, and the two centuries of reproduction that made and nearly buried the picture.

Coda

The Age of Innocence is Reynolds's most famous and most reproduced fancy picture — a child on a bank, made by a later title into the emblem of innocence itself — beloved, sentimentalised, scorned, and, seen fresh, a tender late image of the particular child the Grand Manner had no room for. It is the painter at his most vulnerable to time and taste, and his most widely loved.

The child and the cult of innocence

The picture is a fancy picture — a single, unnamed child in a mood rather than a role — and the identity of the sitter is uncertain: she may be the painter's great-niece Theophila Gwatkin, or a hired model. What fixed the picture's meaning was the title, The Age of Innocence, attached in the nineteenth century, which made the grave little girl on her bank the very emblem of childhood innocence — the Rousseauian cult of the child that the Victorians raised to a religion. The crossed hands, the loose hair, the bare feet, the direct and untroubled gaze compose an image of early childhood that two centuries found irresistible, and made, through engraving and reproduction, into the definitive picture of the innocent child.

The reproduction and the reaction

Through the mezzotint, the chromolithograph, the biscuit-tin and the Sunday-school card, The Age of Innocence became the most reproduced English painting of the nineteenth century — and, in the twentieth-century reaction against Victorian sentiment, the most scorned, the very type of the saccharine. Its ubiquity has made it almost impossible to see, and the fading of the flesh (the fugitive carmines once more) has not helped. Millais's Bubbles — a Reynolds fancy picture a century on, turned into an advertisement for soap — is the type's ultimate fate, and the measure of how completely the mode Reynolds invented was absorbed into popular sentiment.

Seen clear

Set apart from its reproductions, the picture is a tender and serious late work — painted about 1785–88, as the painter approached the blindness of 1789 — of the particular child, for once unraised by allusion or role, painted simply on her bank beneath the tree. It is Reynolds at his most vulnerable to time and taste, and, for all the sentiment that has gathered around it, his most widely loved picture; shared between Tate and the National Gallery, it remains the image through which more people know Reynolds than any other.

The place in the œuvre

The Age of Innocence is the innocent pole of the fancy picture, as the Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus is its sensuous one, and the two majors together define the mode that Reynolds developed alongside the portraits — the single figure in a mood, made for the market and the engraver, that furnished the age's parlours and shaped its sentiment. It is the fancy picture at its most famous and its most defenceless, and the particular child it shows outlived the theory, the fading and the mockery to become the face of childhood itself.

What to look at

The crossed hands; the loose hair; the bare feet tucked under; the grave, sweet, direct gaze. Then the title, added after the painter's death, and the two centuries of reproduction that made the picture the face of childhood and nearly buried it in sentiment.

Coda

The Age of Innocence is the most famous and most reproduced of Reynolds's fancy pictures — a child on a bank, made by a later title into the emblem of innocence itself — beloved, sentimentalised, scorned, and, seen fresh, a tender late image of the particular child the Grand Manner had no room for. It is the painter at his most vulnerable to time and taste, and his most widely loved: the picture through which more people know Reynolds than any other, and the innocent counterpart to the sensuous Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus.

The place in the œuvre

With the Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus, the Age of Innocence is one of the two fancy pictures given canonical weight in this catalogue, and the pair define the mode's range — the innocent and the sensuous, the child and the goddess — that Reynolds developed alongside the portraits and diffused, through the engraving, across Europe and America. It is the fancy picture at its most famous and its most defenceless, and the particular child it shows has outlived the theory, the fading and the mockery to become, for two centuries and more, the very face of childhood.

The Cottagers (Detroit Institute of Arts): a pastoral-genre subject of country figures.

The Holy Family with the Infant St John (Tate): a religious subject-picture.

The Thames from Richmond Hill (Tate/National Gallery): a landscape from Reynolds's Richmond villa — a rare landscape, and a personal one, of the view he loved.

The Continence of Scipio (Hermitage Museum): a history subject of the Roman general returning a captive bride to her betrothed — a moral exemplum; a Reynolds history in the Hermitage.

The picture

Oil on canvas — Courtauld Gallery, London. A late fancy picture of the classical lovers Cupid and Psyche, painted in 1789 — the year Reynolds's sight failed — in the warm, soft, sensuous manner of the mythological subject-pictures. One of the last things the painter made before the blindness ended his career.

The subject and the late manner

Cupid and Psyche — the god of love and the mortal girl of Apuleius's tale — was a subject of the fancy-picture and the erotic-pastoral kind, and Reynolds treated it in the soft, warm, painterly manner of his late subject-pictures. Its date, 1789, gives it a particular poignancy: it was painted in the year the sight of his left eye failed, at the very end of the working life, and it is among the last of the fancy pictures. The Courtauld's picture is a document of the painter's final months at the easel.

The condition

Like many of the late fancy pictures, it was painted with the fugitive media whose failure has cost the œuvre its colour, and its condition reflects the painter's lifelong technical recklessness. But as a late work — soft, warm, sensuous, made at the edge of the blindness — it carries the interest of a valediction.

History

By descent and the market; the Courtauld Gallery, London (Princes Gate collection).

What to look at

Cupid and Psyche; the warm soft flesh; the sensuous late manner. Then the date, 1789, and the blindness that followed within the year.

Coda

Cupid and Psyche is one of Reynolds's last fancy pictures, painted in 1789 as his sight failed — a soft, warm, sensuous mythological subject at the very edge of the career, and a valediction from the painter who was about to lay down the brush for good.

The subject and the late manner

Cupid and Psyche — the god of love and the mortal girl of Apuleius's tale, whose story of love lost and regained was a favourite of the age — was a subject of the fancy-picture and erotic-pastoral kind, and Reynolds treated it in the soft, warm, sensuous manner of his late subject-pictures. Its date, 1789, gives it a particular poignancy: it was painted in the very year the sight of his left eye failed and the working life ended, and it is among the last of the fancy pictures — a valediction in the mode that had given the painter his freest, most purely painterly manner.

The condition and the place

Like so many of the late subject-pictures, it was painted with the fugitive media whose failure has cost the œuvre its colour, and its condition reflects the painter's lifelong technical recklessness; but as a late work — soft, warm, made at the edge of the blindness — it carries the interest of an ending. The Courtauld holds it in the Princes Gate collection, among the museum's other Reynoldses and its old masters, one of the last things the first President of the Royal Academy made before he laid down the brush.

What to look at

Cupid and Psyche; the warm, soft flesh; the sensuous late manner; the dark ground. Then the date, 1789, and the blindness that followed within the year — one of the last things the first President of the Royal Academy made before he laid down the brush.

The picture

Oil on canvas — Royal Collection. A full-length of Francis Rawdon-Hastings (1754–1826), Second Earl of Moira and later First Marquess of Hastings, the soldier of the American war and future Governor-General of India, in uniform, in a martial setting. A late military full-length of 1789.

The soldier

Rawdon distinguished himself in the American war (at Bunker Hill, Camden and elsewhere), became a friend and supporter of the Prince of Wales, and went on to govern India as Marquess of Hastings — a career that spanned the American war and the conquest of India. Reynolds painted him in 1789, at the end of the painter's own career, in the martial full-length manner; the picture belongs to the Royal Collection, reflecting the sitter's closeness to the Prince of Wales.

The manner

A late example of the military full-length — the officer in uniform, the martial setting, the grand scale — painted in the year Reynolds's sight failed. It is one of the last of the soldiers, and it carries the freedom and the breadth of the late manner.

History

Painted 1789; the Royal Collection.

What to look at

The uniform; the martial setting; the grand scale. Then the career — the American war and the government of India — that the sitter carried.

Coda

The Rawdon-Hastings is a late Reynolds military full-length — a soldier of the American war and future ruler of India, painted in the year the painter's sight failed — one of the last of the grand soldiers, in the free late manner.

The soldier and the ruler

Rawdon-Hastings had a career that spanned the age's two great imperial theatres: he fought through the American war — at Bunker Hill, at Camden, in the southern campaigns — and went on, as Marquess of Hastings, to govern India for nine years, waging the wars that completed the British conquest of the subcontinent. A friend and supporter of the Prince of Wales, he sat to Reynolds in 1789, and the picture entered the Royal Collection, reflecting that closeness. It is a late example of the military full-length — the officer in uniform, the martial setting, the grand scale — painted in the year the painter's sight failed.

The late manner

The picture belongs with the Braddyll Family and the other works of 1789 as among the last things Reynolds painted, and it carries the freedom and breadth of the late manner. As one of the final military portraits it closes a series that ran from the Keppel of 1752 through the Tarleton and the Heathfield — the soldiers and sailors of the wars that made and lost and remade the British empire, painted across forty years by the painter the governing class chose.

What to look at

The uniform; the martial setting; the grand late scale. Then the career the sitter carried — the American war and the government of India — and the date, 1789, at the very end of the painter's working life.

The place in the series

As one of the last of the military full-lengths, the Rawdon-Hastings closes a line that ran from the Keppel of 1752 through the Tarleton and the Heathfield: the soldiers and sailors of the wars that made and lost and remade the British empire, painted across forty years by the painter the governing class chose to record them.

Miss Cocks and her Niece (Kenwood House): a double portrait; in the Iveagh Bequest.

Mrs Lewis Thomas Watson (Metropolitan Museum of Art): a female portrait, at the Met.

Patrick Home of Wedderburn (Paxton House): a male portrait.

The picture

Oil on canvas — Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. A family group of Wilson Gale-Braddyll, his wife, and their child, in a landscape — a late group portrait of 1789, the year of the blindness, and the Fitzwilliam's principal Reynolds.

The late group

The picture is a characteristic Reynolds family group — the parents and child arranged affectionately in a landscape — painted at the very end of the career, in the warm, free, broad manner of the late years. It belongs with the Lady Smith and the other late family groups as evidence of the tenderness and breadth Reynolds brought to the family portrait in his final working years, before the sight failed in July 1789.

The manner

The late groups have a warmth and a freedom of handling that the tighter earlier pictures lack, and the Braddyll Family is a good example; it is also, as a work of 1789, one of the last things Reynolds painted. The Fitzwilliam holds it as its Reynolds group.

History

By descent and the market; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

What to look at

The family in the landscape; the affectionate grouping; the warm late handling. Then the date, 1789, at the very end of the career.

Coda

The Braddyll Family is a late Reynolds family group of 1789 — parents and child in a landscape, in the warm, free manner of the final years — one of the last things the painter made before the blindness, and the Fitzwilliam's Reynolds.

The last family group

The Braddyll Family — Wilson Gale-Braddyll, his wife Jane, and their son — is one of the last pictures Reynolds painted, dating from 1789, the year the sight of his left eye failed in July and the working life came to an end. It is a characteristic family group of the late manner: the parents and child arranged affectionately in a landscape, the handling warm and free, the mood tender. It belongs with the Lady Smith and the other late groups as evidence of the breadth and warmth Reynolds brought to the family portrait in his final working years.

The manner and the collection

The late groups have a freedom of handling and a warmth of feeling that the tighter earlier pictures lack, and the Braddyll Family is a good example — painted broadly, at the very end of the career, before the blindness closed it. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge holds it as its principal Reynolds group, and it stands, in this catalogue, near the end of the chronological sequence, one of the last faces the first President set down before he could no longer see to paint.

What to look at

The family in the landscape; the affectionate grouping; the warm, free handling of the late manner. Then the date, 1789 — the year the sight failed — which places the picture among the very last things Reynolds painted.

The place in the sequence

The Braddyll Family stands near the end of this catalogue's chronological sequence, one of the last faces the first President set down before the blindness closed his career; the Fitzwilliam holds it as its principal Reynolds group, a warm and tender valediction in the family-portrait mode.

The Death of Cardinal Beaufort (National Trust): another version of the Shakespearean history subject for Boydell.

Thomas Tomkins, Calligrapher (Guildhall Art Gallery): a portrait of the famous writing-master.

Captain the Hon. John Hamilton (Port Eliot): a naval portrait, at the Eliot seat.

Richard Burke, Son of Edmund Burke (Government Art Collection): a portrait of Burke's only son, whose early death in 1794 broke the statesman.

A Girl Leaning on a Pedestal (The Laughing Girl) (Glasgow Museums): another version of the laughing-girl fancy picture.

Admiral Sir Charles Saunders (Royal Museums Greenwich): another portrait of the admiral of Quebec.

Queen Charlotte (Royal Veterinary College): a version of the Queen's portrait.

Self-portrait (private collection): one of the many self-portraits.

General Sir George Augustus Eliott, Lord Heathfield (Guildhall Art Gallery): a version of the portrait of the defender of Gibraltar (see the National Gallery prime).

Samuel Johnson (Pembroke College, Oxford): another version of a Johnson portrait at his college.

John Hunter (Newcastle University): another portrait of the surgeon.

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (National Galleries Scotland): a portrait of the great Lord Chief Justice, whose judgments shaped English commercial law and the law of slavery (the Somerset case); a major legal sitter.

Portrait of a Lady in a White Satin Dress (Lady Lever Art Gallery): an unidentified female sitter.

Angelica Kauffman (Lady Lever Art Gallery): a version of Reynolds's portrait of the Swiss painter and Academy founder (see the fuller entry on the Kauffman portrait); one of the Lady Lever's Reynoldses.

Anne Vansittart, Lady Palk (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston): a portrait of a Devon baronet's wife; a Boston Reynolds.

Anne, Lady Harewood, with her infant daughter Frances (Harewood House): a maternal group of the Lascelles family, at Harewood.

Anne, Marchioness Townshend (National Trust for Scotland): a female portrait of the grand manner, of the Townshend family.

Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, Admiral (Government Art Collection): a version of one of Reynolds's many portraits of his friend and first great patron (see the Greenwich Commodore Keppel).

Caleb Whitefoord, Wit and Satirical Poet (Victoria and Albert Museum): a portrait of the wine-merchant, wit and diplomat, Franklin's neighbour and friend; a portrait of a minor figure of the age's letters.

Captain Edgcumbe, RN (Mount Edgcumbe House): a naval portrait of a member of the Edgcumbe family, Reynolds's early Devon patrons.

Captain Hugh Bonfoy, RN (Port Eliot): a naval portrait of a member of the Eliot circle, at the Cornish seat.

Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (Port Eliot): the general who surrendered at Yorktown in 1781 and later governed India and Ireland; a portrait at Port Eliot, connected by marriage to the Eliots.

Charles James Fox (Pembroke College, Oxford): the great Whig orator (1749–1806), Burke's colleague and rival and a figure of Reynolds's political world; a portrait at Fox's Oxford college.