Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knight

William Bond

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Reynolds painted many self-portraits in his long career. The one that this engraving reproduces is undoubtedly the most commanding, and displays the sitter's self-confidence as the head of the Royal Academy of Arts. It was painted in either 1779 or 1780 to furnish the new premises of the institution at Somerset House, London in whose collection it remains. Here the painter is dressed in his doctoral robes and cap from the University of Oxford, and stands beside a bust of Michelangelo, his artistic hero. Valentine Green soon based a mezzotint on the painting, published in December 1780, and many other prints followed. Bond's stipple was published to illustrate "The Fine Arts of the English School" (1812), edited by John Britton (1771–1857).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art