Sir Joseph Banks, Bt

Reynolds painted Sir Joseph Banks around 1771-73, capturing the naturalist at the peak of his celebrity following his return from Cook's first Pacific voyage aboard the Endeavour. Banks had financed his own passage at enormous personal expense, bringing a suite of scientists and artists including the botanical illustrator Sydney Parkinson, and his collections of plants, animals, and ethnographic objects transformed European understanding of the natural world. The Maori cloak Reynolds drapes over Banks's shoulders is both a trophy and a statement about the collector's relationship to the cultures he had encountered — complex in ways that Georgian society was only beginning to appreciate. Reynolds, who had himself traveled to Italy in pursuit of artistic education, would have understood something of the transformative potential of immersive encounter with another culture. Banks went on to dominate the intellectual life of Georgian Britain for decades as president of the Royal Society from 1778 to 1820, becoming arguably the most powerful scientific patron of the era. The portrait, now in the National Portrait Gallery, documents the moment at which British empirical science and imperial expansion merged in a single celebrated figure.

Reynolds depicts Banks in a scholarly setting appropriate to his scientific achievements, with a warm palette and attentive handling of textures. The composition conveys intellectual authority combined with youthful vigor.