It is a happy memory that associates the foundation of our Royal
Academy with the delivery of these inaugural discourses by Sir
Joshua Reynolds, on the opening of the schools, and at the first
annual meetings for the distribution of its prizes. They laid down
principles of art from the point of view of a man of genius who had
made his power felt, and with the clear good sense which is the
foundation of all work that looks upward and may hope to live. The
truths here expressed concerning Art may, with slight adjustment of
the way of thought, be applied to Literature or to any exercise of
the best powers of mind for shaping the delights that raise us to
the larger sense of life. In his separation of the utterance of
whole truths from insistance upon accidents of detail, Reynolds was
right, because he guarded the expression of his view with careful
definitions of its limits. In the same way Boileau was right, as a
critic of Literature, in demanding everywhere good sense, in
condemning the paste brilliants of a style then in decay, and
fixing attention upon the masterly simplicity of Roman poets in the
time of Augustus. Critics by rule of thumb reduced the principles
clearly defined by Boileau to a dull convention, against which
there came in course of time a strong reaction. In like manner the
teaching of Reynolds was applied by dull men to much vague and
conventional generalisation in the name of dignity. Nevertheless,
Reynolds taught essential truths of Art. The principles laid down
by him will never fail to give strength to the right artist, or
true guidance towards the appreciation of good art, though here and
there we may not wholly assent to some passing application of them,
where the difference may be great between a fashion of thought in
his time and in ours. A righteous enforcement of exact truth in
our day has led many into a readiness to appreciate more really the
minute imitation of a satin dress, or a red herring, than the
noblest figure in the best of Raffaelle's cartoons. Much good
should come of the diffusion of this wise little book.

Joshua Reynolds was born on the 15th of July, 1723, the son of a
clergyman and schoolmaster, at Plympton in Devonshire. His bent
for Art was clear and strong from his childhood. In 1741 at the
age of nineteen, he began study, and studied for two yours in
London under Thomas Hudson, a successful portrait painter. Then he
went back to Devonshire and painted portraits, aided for some time
in his education by attention to the work of William Gandy of
Exeter. When twenty-six years old, in May, 1749, Reynolds was
taken away by Captain Keppel to the Mediterranean, and brought into
contact with the works of the great painters of Italy. He stayed
two years in Rome, and in accordance with the principles afterwards
laid down in these lectures, he refused, when in Rome, commissions
for copying, and gave his mind to minute observation of the art of
the great masters by whose works he was surrounded. He spent two
months in Florence, six weeks in Venice, a few days in Bologna and
Parma. "If," he said, "I had never seen any of the fine works of
Correggio, I should never, perhaps, have remarked in Nature the
expression which I find in one of his pieces; or if I had remarked
it, I might have thought it too difficult, or perhaps impossible to
execute."

In 1753 Reynolds came back to England, and stayed three months in
Devonshire before setting up a studio in London, in St. Martin's
Lane, which was then an artists' quarter. His success was rapid.
In 1755 he had one hundred and twenty-five sitters. Samuel Johnson
found in him his most congenial friend. He moved to Newport
Street, and he built himself a studio--where there is now an
auction room--at 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields. There he remained for
life.

In 1760 the artists opened, in a room lent by the Society of Arts,
a free Exhibition for the sale of their works. This was continued
the next year at Spring Gardens, with a charge of a shilling for
admission. In 1765 they obtained a charter of incorporation, and
in 1768 the King gave his support to the foundation of a Royal
Academy of Arts by seceders from the preceding "Incorporated
Society of Artists," into which personal feelings had brought much
division. It was to consist, like the French Academy, of forty
members, and was to maintain Schools open to all students of good
character who could give evidence that they had fully learnt the
rudiments of Art. The foundation by the King dates from the 10th
of December, 1768. The Schools were opened on the 2nd of January
next following, and on that occasion Joshua Reynolds, who had been
elected President--his age was then between forty-five and forty-
six--gave the Inaugural Address which formed the first of these
Seven Discourses. The other six were given by him, as President,
at the next six annual meetings: and they were all shaped to form,
when collected into a volume, a coherent body of good counsel upon
the foundations of the painter's art.

H. M.

The regular progress of cultivated life is from necessaries to
accommodations, from accommodations to ornaments. By your
illustrious predecessors were established marts for manufactures,
and colleges for science; but for the arts of elegance, those arts
by which manufactures are embellished and science is refined, to
found an academy was reserved for your Majesty.

Had such patronage been without effect, there had been reason to
believe that nature had, by some insurmountable impediment,
obstructed our proficiency; but the annual improvement of the
exhibitions which your Majesty has been pleased to encourage shows
that only encouragement had been wanting.

To give advice to those who are contending for royal liberality has
been for some years the duty of my station in the Academy; and
these Discourses hope for your Majesty's acceptance as well-
intended endeavours to incite that emulation which your notice has
kindled, and direct those studies which your bounty has rewarded.

May it please your Majesty,
Your Majesty's
Most dutiful servant,
And most faithful subject,
JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

Gentlemen,--That you have ordered the publication of this Discourse
is not only very flattering to me, as it implies your approbation
of the method of study which I have recommended; but likewise, as
this method receives from that act such an additional weight and
authority as demands from the students that deference and respect,
which can be due only to the united sense of so considerable a body
of artists.

I am,
With the greatest esteem and respect,
GENTLEMEN,
Your most humble
And obedient servant,
JOSHUA REYNOLDS