Sir Joshua Reynolds
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Plate: 4 7/8 × 4 1/8 in. (12.4 × 10.5 cm) Sheet: 8 3/4 × 5 7/16 in. (22.2 × 13.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Joseph Verner Reed, 1950
Accession Number
50.576.32
Tags
Art Historical Context
This etching and engraving presents a refined portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of Britain’s most celebrated 18th-century painters and a founding president of the Royal Academy. Created around 1800 Pierre Étienne Falconet, the print captures Reynolds in a dignified pose that underscores his status as both and intellectual. The compact plate size and careful line work reflect the era’s demand for portable, reproducible images of notable figures. Etching and engraving were prized techniques for disseminating portraits beyond elite circles. Falconet’s combination of fluid etched lines and pre...
About the Artist
Sir Joshua Reynolds|Pierre Etienne Falconet · 1723–1792
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) was a British painter who became the dominant figure in eighteenth-century British art and the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. Born in Plympton, Devon, he studied under the portrait painter Thomas Hudson in London, and a transformative visit to Italy (1749–52) — where he studied the Old Masters, particularly the Venetian colorists and Michelangelo — sh...