Joseph Wilton

Reynolds painted Joseph Wilton around 1752, depicting the sculptor who would become a founding member of the Royal Academy alongside Reynolds himself. Wilton had trained in Rome and was among the most technically accomplished sculptors in Georgian Britain, his work including the funerary monuments to General Wolfe and other military heroes that defined the commemorative sculpture of the era. Reynolds and Wilton had encountered each other in Italy — Reynolds was completing his Italian sojourn as Wilton was deepening his Roman training — and the portrait was one of the earliest works Reynolds produced after his return to England. Wilton's later career as Keeper of the Royal Academy after its founding in 1768 made him Reynolds's institutional colleague in the project of raising British art to Continental standards. Reynolds's portraits of fellow artists are among the most engaged in his output, carrying the quality of recognition between equals that distinguishes them from his more commercially motivated society commissions. The National Portrait Gallery's holding appropriately places this artist's portrait of an artist in the institutional context most relevant to both men's cultural significance.

The portrait captures the sculptor with artistic presence. Reynolds's early handling shows developing mastery.