Sir Joshua Reynolds was the most fashionable painter of his time. His talent and ambition made him the first English painter of European stature—an especially impressive feat considering portraiture, his chosen field, was often ignored or dismissed. His position at the heart of British intellectual life gave painting a new presence and transformed the way art was made and appreciated in Britain. In Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the artist’s life and career are illuminated by Joseph Farington, a fellow painter of the next generation and the best diarist of his day. Farington, who knew Reynolds, offers a uniquely astute assessment of his importance to British art.