Reynolds

‘Mark Hallett’s Reynolds: Portraiture in Action is the fullest, best and most readable account of Reynolds’ development as a portrait artist in decades, and the book is expensive because its many illustrations keep pace with almost everything that Hallett describes in his well-chosen words.’—Michael Glover, The Independent

 

~Michael Glover, The Independent

‘[Reynolds] has now been handsomely published by Yale University Press and is a major and deeply serious work, informed by all the latest scholarship in the field of 18th-century studies. . .It is deeply thoughtful about the ways in which Reynolds conceived of his compositions and the most substantial contribution to the study of Reynolds for a generation.’—Charles Saumarez Smith, Literary Review

~Charles Saumarez Smith, Literary Review

‘[An] authoritative and sumptuous book'—Christopher Masters, World of Interiors

~Christopher Masters, World of Interiors

‘[A] masterly and pioneering new study of Reynolds at work’—Martin Gayford, The Spectator

 

~Martin Gayford, The Spectator

‘Hallett. . .brings Reynolds’s actions as a portraitist alive on the page. He reveals the inventive energy Reynolds put into the practice of an art form that had come to be stigmatised, and traces the decision-making both inside compositions and between portraits as they were displayed and in relation to their settings. The portraits tell the story; the life, in Reynolds: Portraiture in Action, is in the works.’—Norma Clarke, TLS

~Norma Clarke, TLS

'[A] formidable but enquiring study that re-presents Reynolds as the 18th century’s master painter-portraitist.'—Stephen Lloyd, Apollo

~Stephen Lloyd, Apollo

“Sumptuous . . . Hallett’s reassessment and the book’s wonderful illustrations give one a chance to judge [Reynolds’s] portraits properly.”—Henrik Bering, New Criterion

~Henrik Bering, New Criterion

Winner of the 2015 Historians of British Art Book Prize for a single-author work relating to a period before 1800.

~Book Award, Historians of British Art

"His ability to tease out the narratives implicit in expressions and gestures has entirely persuaded me...   Hallet is continually alert to the place of portraits he discusses within the long career that, as he demonstrates, Reynolds managed so carefully and with such ambition. If there is a more revealing work than this on English portraiture, I do not know of it."—John Barrell, Oxford Art Journal 

~John Barrell, Oxford Art Journal