Sir John Chichester, 5th Bt (1721-1784)

Reynolds painted Sir John Chichester around 1767, depicting the Devon baronet of Arlington Court. The Chichester family were among the established gentry of north Devon whose patronage formed part of Reynolds's regional client network. Now in a National Trust property, the portrait reflects the Devon connections Reynolds maintained throughout his career despite his London residence and cosmopolitan reputation. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts and the most intellectually ambitious portrait painter of eighteenth-century Britain, combined the social function of the portrait with the elevated aspirations of history painting through his concept of the "Grand Style." His Discourses, delivered to the Royal Academy over fifteen years, codified the academic doctrine of painting in Britain, arguing for the supremacy of the ideal over the particular and the elevated over the mundane. His own portraits attempted to embody this doctrine: sitters placed in settings, poses, and costumes that associated them with the great tradition of painting from Raphael and Titian through Rubens and Rembrandt. Whether or not the attempt always succeeded, it gave British portraiture an intellectual ambition it had previously lacked.

Reynolds presents the baronet with dignified simplicity, using a warm palette and firm modeling to project quiet authority. The composition balances formality with approachability, reflecting Reynolds's skill at adapting his Grand Manner principles to the tastes of country gentlemen.