As founding president of the Royal Academy, Reynolds delivered a series of discourses to its students between 1769 and 1790. He urges them to study the old masters, to seek general beauty over particular detail, to compare painting with poetry, and to learn from Michelangelo and Raphael, and Helen Zimmern’s introduction sketches his life and circle, including Dr. Johnson.
A foundational text of British art theory, still quoted by painters and critics. Download the free EPUB.