REYNOLDS (JOSHUA) Commonplace book compiled by Mary Gwatkin, [early nineteenth-century]

REYNOLDS (JOSHUA) Commonplace book compiled by Mary Gwatkin, including four draft notes in the handwriting of Sir Joshua Reynolds stuck in, three seemingly related to his Discourses on Art ('...A man often flatters himself with seeing things with superior intuition, with a greater extension of views that the rest of the world... There is a reach in Politics, in Religion in arts in life which is the Genius of that art...'), one page making notes on Italian churches and art ('...The Church of Sn. Dominico. The Slaughter of the Innocence [sic] a most Capital Picture of Guido drawing...'); letters including three-page autograph letter from Hannah More signed ('H.More') to Miss Gwatkin, talking of the friendship between their families and her busy social life ('...Our vicinity to Bath, Clifton and Bristol together with our neighbourhood friends sometimes so overdo us with company, that my kind physician has twice sent me away to the Sea...'), seal excised with small loss to text, 4to, Bailey Wood, 27 December [no year]; and an invitation signed ('Macaulay'); with various poems, riddles, printed ephemera (such as 'Lines on Sir Joshua Reynold's being presented with the Freedom of the painters Company', 18 October 1784), and newspaper cuttings (including the obituary of Robert Lovell Gwatkin); all interspersed with some 52 Indian School watercolours depicting scenes of daily life such as washing in the river, ceremonies and processions, music and entertainment, transport, street traders, crafts such a dyeing, basket weaving, furniture making etc., c.104 numbered leaves, c.25 blank, some leaves excised, dust-staining, marks, creasing and small tears, original half calf, title page and some other pages loose, lower and upper covers detached, lacking spine, worn, 4to (232 x 185mm.), [early nineteenth-century] Footnotes: 'A MOST CAPITAL PICTURE OF GUIDO DRAWING': AN ALBUM FROM THE FAMILY OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. The fragments of notes on Italian painting by Joshua Reynolds would appear to date from his Grand Tour of Italy and France undertaken from 1749-1752. Notes on Guido Reni's Slaughter of the Innocents and his fresco of St Dominic in the church of S. Dominico would suggest that he may have written them during a short 10-day stay in Bologna from 4 to 24 July 1752 en route from Rome and Florence to Venice. During this stay in Bologna he was much taken with the work of Lodovico Carracci, '...an artist whom he was to regard with exaggerated respect throughout the rest of his life...' (Martin Postle, ODNB). The accompanying notes may be drafts of ideas for his Discourses on Art, a series of annual lectures delivered to the students of the Royal Academy of Arts, which he founded in 1769. The owner of the notebook, Mary Gwatkin, was the third daughter of Cornish landowner and High Sherriff, Robert Lovell Gwatkin (1757-1843) and Theophila Palmer (1757-1848), niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds through her mother Mary Reynolds. The Gwatkin and Reynolds families held close ties and Robert Gwatkin was chief mourner at the funeral of Sir Joshua in 1792. Theophila was a painter in her own right, but is best known as Reynolds' model. She also acted as his secretary when writing his Discourses, where these notes may have derived. Known as 'Offy', she was his favourite niece and was bequeathed £10,000 in the artist's will. The family was also close friends of Hannah More (who is also represented here) and counted Edmund Burke, James Boswell and Maria Edgeworth amongst their circle. Mary Gwatkin, the owner of our notebook, became the second wife of Edward Beauchamp St John in 1844. Provenance: Mary Gwatkin (1794-1879); her niece Laura Cunliffe Steel, née Gwatkin (1822-1920); thence by descent. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: • • Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing