Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)

A Discourse Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy [Discourses on Art]

London

Printed by Thomas Cadell

December 10, 1790; 1791

"But I am sure that mechanic excellence invigorated and emboldened his mind to carry Painting into the regions of Poetry, and to emulate that Art in its most adventurous flights."

To distinguish between correctness of drawing, and that part which respects the imagination, we may say the one approaches to the mechanical (which in its way too may make just pretensions to genius) and the other to the poetical. To encourage a solid and vigorous course of study, it may not be amiss to suggest that perhaps a confidence in the mechanic produces boldness in the poetic. He that is sure of the goodness of his ship and tackle puts out fearlesly from the shore; and he who knows, that his hand can execute whatever his fancy can suggest, sports with more freedom in embodying the visionary forms of his own creation. I will not say Michael Angelo was eminently poetical, only because he was greatly mechanical; but I am sure that mechanic excellence invigorated and emboldened his mind to carry Painting into the regions of Poetry, and to emulate that Art in its most adventurous flights.
(pp. 14-15)

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From 1769 to 1772 Reynolds' lectures were delivered annually, with each discourse published shortly after its delivery. After 1772, the lectures were delivered biennially. The first seven discourses were collected and published together in 1778. In 1797, the first collected edition of all fifteen appeared, with a second edition issued in 1798. See the ODNB.

Text from A Discourse, Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of the Prizes, Dec. 10, 1790. By the President. (London: Printed by Thomas Cadell, 1791). <Link to ECCO>

07/25/2013