FEATURE image: Reginald Pole, 1743-44, 76 x 86.5 cm, Trustees of the Carew Pole Family Trusts, Antony House, Cornwall. See no. 2 below for the painting’s story.
The earliest phase of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portrait practice, showcasing how his foundational career was built on personal networks, regional connections, and early patrons. By cataloging his earliest documented works, the post highlights how the budding artist transitioned from a precocious child painter into a structurally guided apprentice under local influences and early professional portrait assignments.
Notes by John P. Walsh
Before dominating the London art scene as the first president of the Royal Academy in 1768, Sir Joshua Reynolds laid the groundwork for his legendary career within the tight-knit networks of his native Devon and Cornwall. The 1730s and 1740s represent a vital formative window for the young artist, mapping his transformation from an eleven-year-old prodigy—reputedly painting the local vicar with makeshift materials provided by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe—into a trained professional artist. His career-launching relationship with Devon attorney Charles Cutcliffe directly secured his pivotal London apprenticeship under master portraitist Thomas Hudson. Through localized family connections like the Kendalls, regional politicians, and naval midshipmen, a young Reynolds sharpened his technical precision and began experimenting with classical postures and profiles. These early regional commissions, authenticated by his father’s intimate 1743 correspondence, capture the raw genesis of a master adapting Old Master compositions, such as those of Anthony van Dyck, to secure his future prominence.
The Alleged First Painting (Reverend Mr. Thomas Smart): Painted in 1735 when Reynolds was only 11 years old, this portrait used art supplies provided by the 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. It was completed the same year the sitter, the Vicar of Maker, died.
Reverend Mr. Thomas Smart was Vicar of Maker when, in 1735, 11-year-old Joshua Reynolds painted his portrait. It was the same year the sitter died. This print is a much later derivation of the oil on canvas in a private collection. With art materials provided by George, 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (1720-1795), it is traditionally believed to be Reynolds’s first painting.
Network-Driven Sitters (Reginald Pole): Reynolds’s early 1740s commissions relied closely on localized family connections; for instance, the 26-year-old Reginald Pole (depicted in a blue velvet coat) was married to a woman whose brother was also painted by Reynolds.
Reginald Pole (1717-1769), son of a Devon clergyman and his wife, married a woman whose brother was painted by Reynolds. The 26-year-old sitter wears a blue velvet coat.
The Career-Launching Patron (Charles Cutcliffe): Reynolds’s oval portrait of north Devon attorney Charles Cutcliffe captures a vital professional relationship. Cutcliffe actively helped Reynolds secure his pivotal art apprenticeship under the prominent English portrait painter Thomas Hudson.
The sitter was an attorney in north Devon at Bideford who helped Reynolds secure an apprenticeship to English portrait painter Thomas Hudson (1701-1779). This picture is identified as a young Reynolds’s work based on an August 1743 letter from his father to Cutcliffe.
The attentive young subject is a midshipman in the British navy.
Richard Edgcumbe, son of Sir Richard Edgcumbe, became at 22 years old MP from Plympton where he served for 32 years. He was a reliable ally to long-serving British prime minister Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). Edgcumbe married in 1715 but six years later was a widower. Reynolds’ painting was destroyed by bombing in World War II.
Authenticity Grounded in Correspondence: The historical identification of these early works as a young Reynolds’s hand relies directly on historical provenance documentation, such as an August 1743 letter written by Reynolds’s father.
Reynolds’ blood uncle’s wife’s sister. Though called “Mrs.,” the sitter never married.
An early example of the artist’s use of the profile. Mary Fletcher married Walter Kendall of Cornwall in 1740.
The identity of the sitter in a blue dress is uncertain. She may be an in-law of Walter Kendall.
Part of a collection of 6 or 7 Kendall family portraits painted in 1744 when Reynolds was 21 years old.
Walter Kendall was Plymouth Dock’s town clerk.
Elizabeth Murray married John Kerley, a town official of Plymouth. Their son became a captain in the Royal Navy.
Edward Eliot was MP for Cornwall and a life-long friend of Reynolds. Described as lively, very clever and most agreeable, 50 years later he was a pall-bearer at Reynolds’ funeral.
Wife to Rev. Josiah Foote, Rector of Antony and Kingsteignton in South Devon, the sitter is also the mother of Captain John Foote.
Rosse was an Irish peer whose portrait was painted in London likely. He married Olivia Edwards in 1754. The composition is derived from a portrait of James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, c. 1634–35 by Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641). The van Dyck hangs today in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Clotworth Skeffington’s portrait was painted in London perhaps. It was Reynolds’ most ambitious painting to date.
Sir William had his portrait painted other artists. In Italy in 1729 and 1730 he collected Canalettos. In 1731 he married Lady Lucy Wharton. They divorced in 1738. In 1741 he married Anna Bury. In 1745 Reynolds painted Sir William wearing a brownish silk tunic and grey cloak with a red velvet hat lined in fur.
Family tradition identifies this as a young girl who married in 1769 and died in childbirth soon after.
Ultimately, these early portrait commissions are far more than regional artworks; they represent the structural progression that formed Sir Joshua Reynolds. By blending local patronage with the classical compositions that would soon define his signature “Grand Style,” these foundational years permanently reshaped the trajectory of 18th-century British art.
