Portrait of Samuel Johnson

Reynolds's portrait of Samuel Johnson from around 1775, at the Huntington, is one of several portraits of the great lexicographer and literary critic who was one of Reynolds's closest friends. Their friendship, which lasted from 1756 until Johnson's death in 1784, was the most important personal relationship in both men's lives and played a central role in the creation of The Club, the famous literary circle. Reynolds's Johnson portraits capture the combination of physical awkwardness and intellectual power that contemporaries found both formidable and endearing.

Reynolds renders Johnson with the honest characterization his friendship demanded, neither hiding the subject's physical awkwardness nor reducing him to caricature. The warm, focused lighting on the face and the simplified background create an image of concentrated intellectual power.