The most acute, reliable and illuminating contemporary biography of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the father of English painting. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was the first superstar of British art. Ambition and application turned a talent for painting into genius and made him the first English painter of European stature - an especially impressive feat considering that his chosen field, portraiture, was often disregarded. His own position at the very heart of British intellectual life, as the close friend of Johnson, Burke, Garrick, Fox, Goldsmith and Sheridan gave painting an importance it had never had - as talked about and occasionally as controversial as Britart today. Reynolds' social and intellectual success - he was also the author of the Discourses, the most important work of art theory hitherto published - combined with his crucial role as the first President of the Royal Academy, transformed the way art was made, appreciated, and enjoyed in Britain. All aspects of this astonishing life and career are examined with an acute eye by Joseph Farington, a fellow painter and Academician of the next generation, and the best diarist of his day.Farington knew Reynolds and was close to many of his intimates. His account, the most penetrating and impressive of the contemporary writings about Reynolds, tells the story of the life and gives a fascinating assessment of Reynolds' importance to British art. This edition is the first publication since 1819 of Farington's Memoirs. They are introduced by the leading expert on the painter, Dr. Martin Postle, who elucidates the historical and artistic context of the Memoirs and of the man who wrote them. 42 pages of colour illustrations cover the span of Reynold's astonishing output.