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Sir Joshua Reynolds and His Blindness and Death*

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Sir Joshua Reynolds and His Blindness and Death* [From Schenkius: Observationum Medicanum, Francofurti, 1609] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY Third Series, Volume I November, 1939 Number 6 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AND HIS BLINDNESS AND DEATH* By BURTON CHANCE, M.D. PHILADELPHIA WHILE in London a few traits I had seen knew the origin of the years ago. it was my malady which carried Reynolds off. In privilege to be taken the social and artistic histories of the over St. Bartholomew’s second half of the eighteenth century Hospital by Sir D'Arcy in England, a distinct place is accorded Power. It was my de­ to Sir Joshua Reynolds and his friends, light to pause with Sir D'Arcy before for on many accounts Sir Joshua was the portraits hanging in the Governors’ one of the most memorable men of his room. Among them was that superb time. It is known that intimacies existed one, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Perci- between him and numerous distin­ vall Pott, he who gave the names to guished medical men. Pott’s “Disease,” and Pott’s “Fracture,” In the history of medicine in Eng­ and who had described “Fistula Lachry­ land, during the period of Sir Joshua mal is.” And then the thought came to Reynolds’ course, few among the chief me that Pott and others there portrayed practitioners were much occupied with might have been friends of Reynolds, clinical pathology. In the scanty ac­ and probably they frequently visited counts given of Reynolds’ illness, noth­ that charming person at his hospitable ing that is satisfying to a modern medi­ house in Leicester Square, and perhaps cal man has been preserved. The story were aware that Sir Joshua became of his life is to be found chiefly in works blind and ceased to paint while still in by artists who, quite naturally, were in­ active life. The probable cause of Rey­ terested in Sir Joshua as the painter of nolds’ blindness had long interested me; unsurpassed portraits. We, therefore, and as I went out from “Bart’s,” I won­ can build up a theory to explain the dered whether any of those whose por­ probable origin of Reynolds’ malady * Read at the Section on Medical History, College of Physicians, Philadelphia, Monday, March 13, 1939. only from one’s own clinical experi­ uary 31, 1681, was the master of the ence, and from knowledge gained from grammar school and, being a university pathological research. man and a scholar, exercised himself Sometimes while gazing at the beau­ quite naturally in cultivating the minds tiful products of Reynolds’ brush, the of his children. With so large a family, thought has come to me “might not he could not afford, out of his small the affections to which he succumbed income to send his boys to the univer­ have been associated with the great sity, so he took care to ground them in painter’s blindness?’’ The meager de­ the classics, whereby Joshua became tails which I have been able to accu­ versed in Latin. The small boy of eight mulate have led me to infer that there years read quite serious books, and was a direct connection. showed distinct power of literary com­ Before considering his ill health, I position, in which he exhibited un­ wish to tell something of Reynolds’ life usual thoughtfulness. and character, the facts of which I have It was intended that Joshua should gathered from sources so numerous that become a practitioner of medicine, and they cannot be detailed here. He was a under the direction of his father who most charming man and a power in the was, in his own opinion, “a proficient in polite and cultivated society of London, the Science,’’ the boy’s training was con­ if not of the entire Kingdom. We may sidered with care. Before the lad was regard him as a thoroughly sane man; seventeen, he had spent a great deal of one whose sanity can be subjected to a time and pains in medical studies. thorough psychological study. While Without the father’s taking into ac­ venturing to describe him, I am re­ count the qualification of a “Master,’’ minded of the statement made by his since he himself should be the actual most devoted friend, the great orator instructor, it was decided to apprentice and statesman, Edmund Burke: him to the Plymouth Apothecary. An “Sir Joshua lived for his art and a “apothecary’’ in those days, it must be select circle of friends. The very quali­ remembered, was a general practi­ ties which made the society of our tioner. friend so pleasant to all who knew him All the children were fond of draw­ are the very things that make it difficult ing. Joshua in his early childhood to write his life or draw his character.’’ amused himself -with pen and pencil, Joshua Reynolds was born in Plymp- drawing and sketching and copying en­ ton, not far from Plymouth, England, gravings in books. Yet as a child, he on July 16, 1723. He was the third son did not evince extraordinary skill; in­ and the seventh child in a family of deed, he was the least promising of the eleven. His parents were descended family and inclined to playfulness. from families of intelligence and cul­ When he tried his hand at likenesses, ture. His mother ivas Theophila Pot­ he met with only tolerable success; ter, the child of an old literary family nevertheless, he continued year after of squires and numerous churchmen, year to occupy his leisure with his pen­ but she herself in the annals of the cil but he had not yet attempted to use Reynolds family was a name only and colors. His efforts at drawing and rather nothing has come down to us re­ crude attempts at portraits, showed the garding her personality. His father, the signs of a determination to succeed. Reverend Samuel Reynolds, born Jan­ Although Joshua was the clown of the family he had a truly serious nature he returned to his home and set up a and startled his brothers and sisters by studio at Plymouth Dock, later known drafting a set of “rules of conduct.” In­ as Devonport where, before January evitably, the claims of “Medical Sci­ ence” and of “Art” began to be almost equally balanced in his mind yet, so he declared to his father, “he’d rather be an apothecary than an ordinary painter, but if he could be bound to an eminent master, he should choose the latter.” In after years he explained to a friend that “if the profession of an apothecary had been selected for him, he should have felt the same determina­ tion to become the eminent physician as he then felt himself to be the first painter of his age.” He always main­ tained the dictum that “skill in pursuit did not depend on special faculties, but upon the aggregate amount of mental power.” It was decided that he should become an artist, and his highest expectation was fulfilled in November, 1740, when, though only seventeen years of age, he was received into the house of the popu­ lar portraitist Thomas Hudson to ■whom he was “apprenticed for three 1744, he had painted twenty-four por­ years.” Joshua, by his enthusiasm and traits and had commissions for ten decided talent promptly eclipsing his more. By December he was again in instructors, continued a pupil for only London. His father died at about this a little over eighteen months. It is not at time and Joshua resolved to return to all improbable that Hudson was jealous his old home. Between the years of of the foreshadowing of his pupil’s abil­ nineteen and twenty, “he became very ities. Joshua declared to his family that restless and lived for nearly three years his master’s canvasses “were without at Plymouth,” where it was recorded one touch of genius to raise them above that his time in the interval was spent the level of respectable mediocrity. in more or less idleness. It was the Whatsoever power they possessed was period of his first taste of freedom from confined to the drawing of the head; all control, and independence combined others did the shoulders and the with the delight of sociability conspired drapery.” “Painting had sunk to an to draw him from his easel and allowed ordinary manufacture. The art was at him to indulge in the pleasures of the the lowest ebb, it could not indeed be companionship of his friends. Thus lower. The Hudsons of his day could early was manifested that quality of teach him nothing further.” Relying on character which marked his life to the his family connections in Devonshire, end. Yet he was not altogether idle, for he executed a number of portraits in­ this invitation proved to be the turning cluding two admirable likenesses of point in his life. From being a guest, himself which exhibit a distinct eman­ Reynolds became the friend of Keppel. cipation from the style of his teacher, At Minorca, the Governor provided Hudson. This breaking away from the free quarters for him and invited him domination of his master enabled him to live at his table. Even at this early to look to Nature and he began to trans­ date Reynolds could win his way wher­ fer to his canvas incidents and effects ever he went. In the weeks he passed on caught fresh from life, and youthful the island nearly all the officers availed though he was, these were portrayed themselves of the opportunity to have with an individuality and charm which their portraits painted by him.
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