“Be careful what you wish for”

Barrie Sheppard continues his insights into the ‘life and times of Sir Joshua Reynolds’. Barrie writes: When Allan Ramsay, Principle Painter in Ordinary to King George III, died on August 10, 1784, two contenders vied for the consequential, vacant position: Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Sir Joshua felt the position was his due, given his position as President of the Royal Academy, that prestigious institution founded by the King, the formation of which Reynolds had played a leading role.

However, The Morning Post journalist, Henry Dudley Bate, had other ideas. Of Gainsborough he wrote, “that no living artist has so much originality, as far as genius is concerned…”

Gainsborough himself thought his chances were high, given that the King had invited him to Windsor Palace to paint the royal family. And further, because of the relaxed, friendly relationship he had established with the King, who thought little of Reynolds personally.

Reynolds was keen to get the job, but he was reluctant, at first, to ask for it even though such soliciting was customary. Accordingly, he wrote seeking the advice of his friend Samuel Johnson, away from London in Derbyshire at the time. Johnson replied, …’ that the President of the Academy founded by the King should be the King’s painter is surely very congruous.”

Presumably, Reynolds must have asked Johnson whether he should ask outright for the position, for Johnson wrote:

If you ask for it, I believe you will have no refusal, whatever is expected without asking I cannot say. Your treatment at court has been capricious, inconsistent and unaccountable (presumably because he hadn’t been asked to paint the portraits of the Royal family)….If you are desirous of the place, I see no reason why you should not ask for it…..”

Reynolds must have written again, informing Johnson that he would ask the King for the position, and that, if refused, he would threaten to resign as President of the Academy. However, before he had the chance to carry out his threat, he was granted the position, for Johnson wrote:

I am glad that a little favour from the court has intercepted your furious purposes….i could not in any case have approved such publick violence of resentment, and should have considered any who encouraged it, as rather seeking sport for themselves, than honour for you.

Not long into the position, Reynolds was grumbling about his working conditions at the Court, and of how little he was paid for the official portraits he was required to paint (approx.one third of his usual fee), adding that the Court couldn’t expect improved portraits when it paid so little – a rather unkind tilt at Allan Ramsay.

How revealing of Sir Joshua this incident is! And how wise it shows his friend Sam Johnson to be. And I wonder if Johnson in referring to the appointment as “a little favour” was being not a little prescient.

Thank you again, Barrie, for another fascinating tidbit on Reynolds’ life and personality.