The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds 2 Volume Set

This two-volume posthumous edition of the writings on art of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92), one of the greatest of eighteenth-century artists and the first president of the Royal Academy, was published in 1797. Volume 1, prefaced by a short biography of Reynolds by his friend, the Shakespearean critic Edmond Malone (1741–1812), consists of his 'discourses' on art given at the Royal Academy, and three essays published in Dr Johnson's periodical The Idler. Volume 2 contains his previously unpublished Journey to Flanders and Holland, which describes and comments on the paintings Reynolds examined on a two-month tour in Europe in 1781, and an extensive commentary by Reynolds on a poem on the art of painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy (1611–68). Appendices include essays by Pope and Dryden on Du Fresnoy's poem, and chronological and alphabetical lists of painters and their genres. An index covers both volumes.