Thomas Lister (The Brown Boy)

Reynolds painted Thomas Lister (The Brown Boy) around 1758, a large full-length portrait of a young Yorkshire gentleman that acquired its popular name from the dominant brown of the sitter's costume. The painting belongs to Reynolds's post-Italian period, when he was systematically applying the lessons of Italian composition and Venetian colour to English portrait subjects. Lister came from a prosperous Yorkshire family with considerable local standing, and the full-length format — unusual for a sitter of his rank — suggests either exceptional family ambition or Reynolds's particular interest in the compositional challenge of the standing male figure in outdoor setting. The painting's popular nickname — The Brown Boy — reflects the Georgian practice of identifying portraits by costume colour when the sitter's name was uncertain or unfamiliar; it also connects the work to the tradition of Reynolds's most famous costume-identified portrait, The Blue Boy, though that painting is by Gainsborough rather than Reynolds. The Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford holds the canvas, keeping it in the Yorkshire context from which the Lister family came.

The portrait presents the young man with elegant bearing in the warm brown suit. Reynolds's handling creates a vivid image of youthful gentlemanly refinement.