Hired to Depress: A Digital Scholarly Edition of William Blake's Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds' DiscoursesMain MenuWho is William Blake?Just who is William Blake? And why does his scribbling in a book matter?Who is Sir Joshua Reynolds?Important FiguresTitle PageContents of The First VolumeDedication and To the KingSome Account of the Life and Writings of Sir Joshua ReynoldsWritten by Edmond Malone, Esq.The First DiscourseBibliographyElizabeth Pottera6e9fb7ea6eda3e5063e2aee73ca5f372e99b8f3
12015-12-12T23:14:21-08:00Some Account xxi5Some Account of the Life and Writings of Sir Joshua Reynoldsplain2017-01-16T11:05:09-08:00 investigating. The method which he fol- lowed when he was at Venice, in order to ascertain the principles on which the great masters of colouring wrought, and to attain the true management of light and shade, he has himself particularly mentioned in a note on Du Fresnoy’s Poem . 15
While he was in Italy, he occasionally in- dulged himself in Caricatura, which was much in vogue at that time. Of pieces of this description, the only one which I have seen of his hand, is a large picture , 14 containing about twenty figures, being all the English gentlemen of note who were then at Rome. This caricatura, however, was not like the more modern productions in that style, being done with the consent of the gentlemen re- presented. It was a kind of picturesque travesty of Raffaelle's School of Athens.