Sir Joshua Reynolds was an acclaimed artist and identified as England’s most eminent portraitist. Nearly all his portraits were of young English children. The children were angelical, with soft, smooth features. Reynolds’ The Age of Innocence is his most renowned and widely distributed piece and has been document to have many replicas (Tate Britain). Reynolds’ artwork of English children is known to have positive reception as they captivate the hearts of viewers. Reynold’s illustration of the child represents a profound meaning and is extended through art to touch and move the individual. The state of naturalness is exemplified in this portrait, and the child is a metaphor of unspoiled territory that is represented through the background of the picture. The background of the photo is a pictorial landscape. Reynolds combines human beauty with a picturesque landscape to thoroughly entice the viewer. The photo’s composition combined with Reynolds’ artistic methodology exemplifies Romantic preoccupations of the natural state versus the individual, beauty, and picturesque landscape. Reynold’s portrait represents the picturesque through its aesthetic qualities, and preoccupation of the view of the child within the landscape. Reynolds juxtaposes feminine beauty against the picturesque to contrast two opposing notions: natural versus the created. The natural state is the child, while the created is the landscape.
Key Words: Innocence, Beauty, Picturesque, Individual, Natural State