The rediscovery of Joshua Reynolds's "Dionysius Areopagita": And a re-assessment

In 1986, during the course of the Reynolds exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, I gave a paper at a related symposium on Reynolds's "fancy pictures" featuring old men, notably his celebrated model George White. In October 1988 I published a related article in "The Burlington Magazine", entitled "Patriarchs, prophets, and paviours : Reynolds's images of old age." The material was subsequently incorporated into a chapter of my book, "Sir Joshua Reynolds : the subject pictures," and presented sleep on modified in the catalogue raisonné of Reynolds's paintings post in 2000 by Yale University Press. Among Reynolds's paintings of old men featuring George White was "Dionysious the Areopagite" or "Dionysius Areopagita" (as I shall call it) then known only in the form of a mezzotint engraving by Isaac Jehner. Reynolds's original painting was exhibited only once in public, in 1850, at the British Institution's gallery on Pall Mall. Recently, it has been located in a British private collection. Its reappearance provides an opportunity to reassess the composition, its technique, its subject, and its significance in the wider context of Reynolds's studio practice. [Publication Abstract]