Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 - 23 February 1792) was a leading 18th century English portrait painter and President of the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1792. He was born on 16 July 1723 in Plympton, Devon, one of the 11 children of Samuel Reynolds and Theophila Potter. His father was a master of Plympton grammar school, and it was here that Joshua received his education. Joshua was encouraged to take an active interest in art and painted his first known portrait at 12. He was highly influenced by Jonathan Richardson’s An Essay on the Theory of Painting (1715).In 1740, Joshua’s father bound him to an “eminent master” – Thomas Hudson, a native of Devon who had become a leading portrait painter in London. Joshua was a very sociable man and developed a wide circle of patrons and friends. He was a member of a number of clubs, including the Artists’ Club, the Dilettanti Society, the Devonshire, the Thursday night club and the Eumelian. He was a frequent guest at the Bluestocking Circle assemblies of Mrs Montagu. The Bluestocking assemblies drew together a wide range of people – artists and writers, botanists and politicians, actors and musicians and Joshua Reynolds developed friendships with Fanny Burney , Hannah and Elisabeth Carter. Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806) was an English poet, classicist and translator. One of the more prominent members of the “Bluestocking Circle,” a mid-18th-century women’s literary and social movement. Carter commanded respect among her peers – both men and women – for her translation of the 2nd-century Greek philosophical work, The Discourses of Epictetus. She became friends with many of the age’s literary lights, including critic and poet Samuel Johnson. Her poetry reflected an educated mind informed by classical learning and contemporary philosophical concerns