Joshua Reynolds

Much as the late nineteenth-century American myth of Manifest Destiny was used to justify westward expansion, many history paintings worked to shape and uphold stories of superiority and inferiority…
Pregnancy is a common experience of women that is rarely seen in historic portraiture.

Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough were Georgian art superstars and friendly rivals. The Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition was the perfect setting for them to go head to head, as…