The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds 2 Volume Set: Containing his Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland (Now First Published), and his Commentary on Du Fresnoy’s ’Art of Painting’

This two-volume posthumous edition of the writings on art of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723?€“92), one of the greatest of eighteenth-century artists and the first president of the Royal Academy, was published in

1797. Volume 1, prefaced by a short biography of Reynolds by his friend, the Shakespearean critic Edmond Malone (1741?€“1812), consists of his 'discourses' on art given at the Royal Academy, and three essays published in Dr Johnson's periodical The Idler. Volume 2 contains his previously unpublished Journey to Flanders and Holland, which describes and comments on the paintings Reynolds examined on a two-month tour in Europe in 1781, and an extensive commentary by Reynolds on a poem on the art of painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy (1611?€“68). Appendices include essays by Pope and Dryden on Du Fresnoy's poem, and chronological and alphabetical lists of painters and their genres. An index covers both volumes.