Samuel William Reynolds (4 July 1773 – 13 August 1835)[1] was a mezzotint engraver, landscape painter and landscape gardener. Reynolds was a popular engraver in both Britain and France and there are over 400 examples of his work in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Reynolds was born on 4 July 1773. His father was the son of a planter in the West Indies, and was himself born there, but, being sent in his youth to England for education, settled here permanently, and married Sarah Hunt. Young Reynolds studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, and under William Hodges, R.A., and was taught mezzotint engraving by John Raphael Smith.[2]
In 1797 he engraved a plate of "The Relief of Prince Adolphus and Marshal Freytag" after Mather Brown, which shows a complete mastery of the art, and during the next twenty years produced many fine works, including "The Vulture and Lamb", "The Falconer", "Leopards", "Vulture and Snake", and "Heron and Spaniel", all after James Northcote; ‘A Land Storm,’ after George Morland; portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir J. F. Leicester, and Lady Harcourt, after Joshua Reynolds; portraits of Lady Elizabeth Whitbread and the Duchess of Bedford, after John Hoppner; ‘The Jew Merchant,’ after Rembrandt; and ‘The Rainbow,’ after Rubens.[2]
He also engraved a great number of portraits and compositions by Dance, Jackson, William Owen (1769–1825), Stephanoff, Bonington, Sir Robert Ker Porter, and others, and was one of the artists employed by Turner upon his "Liber Studiorum". Reynolds worked with great rapidity, and his plates are executed in a vigorous and masterly style, etching being employed to strengthen the mezzotint with unexampled success.[2]
Early in life Reynolds secured for himself and his family the continuous friendship and patronage of Samuel Whitbread, and, through his connection with Drury Lane Theatre, became intimate with Thomas Sheridan and Edmund Kean. He frequently visited the theatre to assist the latter in making up his face for the part of Othello.[2]
He was engaged as drawing-master to the royal princesses, and through them was offered more than one post at court, which he declined, but he accepted the appointment of engraver to the king, although he refused the honour of knighthood. He drew and engraved a remarkable portrait of King George III (with a beard) in extreme old age, which he published in 1820. Throughout his career he practised oil and watercolour painting, and exhibited landscapes and other subjects at the Royal Academy and the British Institution from 1797. His landscapes, which are very original and powerful in treatment, went largely to France and Germany at the time, which accounted for his not being so well-known as a painter in this country.[2]
In 1809, Reynolds paid his first visit to Paris, and in 1810 and 1812 exhibited engravings at the Salon. Between 1820 and 1826 he issued, in four volumes, a series of 357 small but admirable plates of all the then accessible works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whom he claimed relationship. Upon the completion of this he revisited Paris, where his work, both in painting and engraving, created much enthusiasm among French artists, several of whom became his pupils. An article, which appeared at the time in ‘L'Artiste,’ describing Reynolds's extraordinary talents, is quoted by Beraldi (Les Graveurs du XIXe Siècle - Engravers of the 18th century).
Reynolds executed a considerable number of plates in France, including ‘The Raft of the Medusa,’ after Géricault; ‘La Bonne Fille,’ after Haudebourt-Lescot; ‘The Massacre of the Innocents,’ after Leon Cogniet; ‘Mazeppa,’ after Horace Vernet; a few fancy subjects after Dubufe; and some clever studies after Charlet. Several of these were exhibited at the Salon in 1827.
Reynolds commenced a large plate from John Constable's picture "The Lock", which he did not live to complete; a letter from him, in praise of the original, is printed in Leslie's ‘Life of Constable’.[3] Reynolds had many pupils, the ablest of whom were Samuel Cousins, David Lucas, and John Lucas (1807–1874). He was also a skilful landscape-gardener, and laid out the grounds of Southall and Mount Edgcumbe.
He died of paralysis at Ivy Cottage, Bayswater, London where he had long resided, on 13 August 1835. His collections, which consisted chiefly of his own drawings and engravings, were dispersed at Christie's in the following April. By his wife, Jane Cowen, to whom he was married in 1793, and who survived him some years, enjoying an annuity from the Whitbread family, Reynolds had two sons and three daughters.
His elder son of the same name, Samuel William Reynolds Jr. (1794–1872), was also a noted mezzotint engraver and landscape painter. Of his daughters, Elizabeth, an able miniaturist, married engraver William Walker (1791–1877), and Frances exhibited miniatures at the Royal Academy (1828–1830).
A small portrait of Reynolds, etched by Edward Bell, was published by A. E. Evans in 1855. Another portrait was painted by his friend Ary Scheffer. In a humorous watercolour drawing by A. E. Chalon, representing artists at work in the gallery of the British Institution in 1805, Reynolds, seated at his easel, is a prominent figure. There is a fine portrait of Mrs. Reynolds, painted by John Opie.