Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (1723-1792) Studio Experiments in Colour and Media, oil on canvas, c. 1770s-1780s

This canvas, onto which Reynolds has 'arranged specimens of various pigments for experimental purposes' was bought by the RA in 1878. It was originally presented to Sir Thomas Lawrence by its previous owner, who had lived in Reynolds' house in Great Newport Street and had preserved a number of these experimental canvases. It disappeared after Lawrence's death, reappearing again in the late-nineteenth century.

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