Samuel William Reynolds

Samuel William Reynolds (4 July 1773 – 13 August 1835)^[1] was an English engraver, painter and gardener who specialised in landscape painting and landscape architecture. Reynolds was a popular engraver in both Britain and France and there are over 400 examples of his work in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Reynolds was born on 4 July 1773. His father was born in the West Indies, the son of a planter, but, being sent in his youth to England for education, settled there permanently, and married Reynolds' mother, Sarah Hunt.

Reynolds studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, and under the mezzotint engravers Charles Howard Hodges^[2] and John Raphael Smith.^[3] His earliest dated mezzotint is a portrait of George, Prince of Wales, from May 1794.^[4]

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.^[3]

كما قام بنقش عدد كبير من الصور الشخصية واللوحات الفنية لدانس ، وجاكسون ، وويليام أوين (1769-1825)، وستيفانوف ، وبونينغتون ، وغريغور ماكغريغور ، والسير روبرت كير بورتر ، وغيرهم، وكان أحد الفنانين الذين وظفهم جيه إم دبليو تيرنر في كتابه "ليبر ستوديوروم" . ^{[ 3 ]} عمل رينولدز بسرعة فائقة، ^{[ 3 ]} وغالبًا ما كان يجمع بين تقنيات الحفر، والحفر المائي، والحفر بالتنقيط مع تقنية الميزوتينت. ^{[ 5 ]}

في مطلع حياته، حظي رينولدز لنفسه ولعائلته بصداقة ودعم صموئيل ويتبريد ، ومن خلال علاقته بمسرح دروري لين ، أصبح مقربًا من توماس شيريدان وإدموند كين . وكان يتردد على المسرح لمساعدة الأخير في وضع المكياج لدور عطيل . ^{[ 3 ]}

عمل رسامًا لدى الأميرات الملكيات ، ومن خلالهن عُرضت عليه أكثر من وظيفة في البلاط، رفضها جميعًا، لكنه قبل منصب نقاش الملك، رغم رفضه لقب فارس. رسم ونقش صورة رائعة للملك جورج الثالث (بلحيته) في شيخوخته، ونشرها عام ١٨٢٠. طوال مسيرته الفنية، مارس الرسم الزيتي والمائي ، وعرض لوحات المناظر الطبيعية وغيرها من المواضيع في الأكاديمية الملكية والمؤسسة البريطانية منذ عام ١٧٩٧. معظم لوحاته للمناظر الطبيعية، التي تميزت بأصالتها وقوة أسلوبها، ذهبت في ذلك الوقت إلى فرنسا وألمانيا ، مما يفسر عدم شهرته كرسام في بريطانيا العظمى. ^{[ ٣ ]}

In 1809, Reynolds paid his first visit to Paris, and in 1810 and 1812 exhibited engravings at the Paris Salon. Between 1820 and 1826 he issued, a series of 357 small plates in four volumes, reproducing 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 in Les Graveurs du XIXe Siècle ("Engravers of the 18th century").^[3]

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 Léon Cogniet; Mazeppa, after Horace Vernet; a few fancy subjects after Dubufe; and some studies after Charlet. Several of these were exhibited at the Salon in 1827.

Reynolds began a large plate from John Constable's picture The Lock, but did not live to complete it; a letter from him, in praise of the original, is printed in Leslie's Life of Constable.^[6] 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 lived for many years, on 13 August 1835. His collections, which consisted chiefly of his own drawings and engravings, were sold 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).

نُشرت صورة صغيرة لرينولدز، نقشها إدوارد بيل، بواسطة إيه إي إيفانز عام ١٨٥٥. ورسم صديقه آري شيفر صورة أخرى له . وفي رسمة مائية فكاهية لإيه إي شالون ، تُصوّر فنانين يعملون في معرض المؤسسة البريطانية عام ١٨٠٥، يظهر رينولدز جالسًا على حامل لوحته كشخصية بارزة. ورسم جون أوبي صورة لزوجته . ^{[ ٣ ]}

• ويتمان، ألفريد تشارلز (1903). صموئيل ويليام رينولدز . مطبوعات الميزوتينتر في القرن التاسع عشر. لندن: جورج بيل وأبناؤه.

• صور محفورة للفنان إس دبليو رينولدز ( المعرض الوطني للصور، لندن )