To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com

This portrait represents the first major commission undertaken by one of Britain’s greatest portrait artists, and is an important stylistic insight into his early artistic development. Joshua Reynolds’ career was not only celebrated in his day, but left a lasting influence on British Art. He was the first President of the Royal Academy, and in his ‘Discourses’ set a pattern for portraiture that was faithfully followed until challenged by the Pre-Raphaelites.

In the summer of 1743 Reynolds’ four-year-long apprenticeship to Thomas Hudson came to an abrupt end following a minor but overblown argument. By the beginning of 1744, however, Reynolds was confident enough of his own abilities to establish himself as a portraitist, operating in London and his native Devon, and especially Plymouth, which at the time was enjoying the most prosperous period in its history. During the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 Plymouth had been the first town in England to declare support for Prince William of Orange, and his subsequent decision to build naval dockyards there proved the foundation if its prosperity. At some point in 1744 Reynolds was commissioned by Walter Kendall to paint his entire family. Walter Kendall, the Town Clerk in Plymouth, would have been an important member of local society, and thus an excellent patron for Reynolds. The commission to paint as many as seven members of the Kendall family was an important breakthrough in Reynolds’ attempt to establish himself as an artist, for until that point Reynolds had only a handful of portrait commissions to his name.

That Reynolds was able to paint such a remarkably accomplished portrait at the age of only 21, and after a shorter than usual apprenticeship (the normal term being seven years), is hardly surprising given his precocious talent. The thickly textured surfaces so noticeable throughout Reynold’s career can already be seen here, for Reynolds deploying impasto with a degree of accomplishment rarely seen in artists of such inexperience. Furthermore, Reynold’s pre-eminent skill for capturing character can also be noticed in the sharp rendering of Kendall’s expressive eyes, the sheer intensity of which would not have been seen before in a portrait of a provincial town clerk.

And yet, at the same time, this portrait displays some of the typical weaknesses that one would forgive in any young artist. There is, for example, a rather awkward conjunction between the sitter’s neck and collar, which may reflect Reynold’s admitted lack of confidence in drawing from life. Nevertheless, the effect of the whole is still uncompromisingly Reynoldsian, and signals an important moment in the career of the man who would change not only the repertoire of English characterizations – henceforth depicted with intellect, vigour and imagination - but also the history of British art.