As first president of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds addressed its students at prize-givings from 1769 to 1790, and these fifteen talks became the classic English statement of academic art theory. He argues for study of the old masters, the grand style of Raphael and Michelangelo over the ornamental Venetians, and genius as the fruit of labour.
The foundational text of British art criticism, still quoted by painters and historians. Download the free EPUB.