Sir Joshua Reynold's Discourses; (1891) (14762282421)

Identifier: sirjoshuareynold1891reyn (find matches)
Title: Sir Joshua Reynold's Discourses;
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723-1792 Johnson, Edward Gilpin
Subjects: Art
Publisher: Chicago : A. C. McClurg and company
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University



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r yourselves. We have endeavored tolead you to the admiration of nothing but what istruly admirable. If you choose inferior patterns, orif you make your own former works your patternsfor your latter^ it is your own fault. The purport of this discourse, and, indeed, of mostof my other discourses, is to caution you against thatfalse opinion, but too prevalent among artists, of theimaginary powers of native genius, and its sufficiencyin great works. This opinion, according to the tem- I/O REYNOLDSS DISCOURSES. per of mind it meets with, almost always produceseither a vain confidence or a sluggish despair, — bothequally fatal to all proficiency. Study, therefore, the great works of the great mas-ters forever. Study, as nearly as you can, in theorder, in the manner, and on the principles, on whichthey studied. Study nature attentively, but alwayswith those masters in your company; consider themas models which you are to imitate, and at the sametime as rivals with whom you are to contend.
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Lady Louisa Manners,Countess Dysart. DISCOURSE VII. Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy^ on the Distri-bution of the Prizes^ December lo, 1776. THE REALITY OF A STANDARD OF TASTE, AS WELL AS OF CORPORALBEAUTY. — BESIDES THIS IMMEDIATE TRUTH, THERE ARE SECOND-ARY TRUTHS, WHICH ARE VARIABLE ; BOTH REQUIRING THE AT-TENTION OF THE ARTIST, IN PROPORTION TO THEIR STABILITY ORTHEIR INFLUENCE. It has been my uniform endeavor, since I first ad-dressed you from this place, to impress you stronglywith one ruling idea. I wished you to be persuadedthat success in your art depends almost entirely onyour own industry; but the industry which I princi-pally recommended is not the industry of the hands,but of the mind. As our art is not a divine gift, so neither is it amechanical trade. Its foundations are laid in solidscience; and practice, though essential to perfection,can never attain that to which it aims, unless it worksunder the direction of principle. Some writers upon art carry th