REYNOLDS JOSHUA: (1723-1792) English portrait painter, a founder and first president of the ...

REYNOLDS JOSHUA: (1723-1792) English portrait painter, a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. A good A.L.S., Joshua Reynolds, one page, 4to, London, 18th October 1783, to John Wauchope. Reynolds states that he has been desired by Sir William Forbes to 'send to you a note of what the late Lord Errol (sic) was indebted to me for pictures painted for him' At the foot of the letter Reynolds provides his account, totalling £163-5-0 and comprising a 'whole length' study of Lord Erroll (£105-0-0), a painting of Lady Erroll and a copy of the same (£26-5-0 each), an alteration to the drapery of a painting (£5-5-0) and a packing case (ten shillings). With integral address leaf bearing a good red wax seal (small area of paper loss where originally opened). With a contemporary docket recording Wauchope's response to Reynolds, 'answ[ere]d that I could not promise but would be disappointed if the debt was not paid before the end of the year'. Some light age wear and a few small, neat tears, one only slightly affecting a few letters of the signature. About VG

John Wauchope (1750-1828) Scottish solicitor, Writer to the Signet.

James Hay (1726-1778) 15th Earl of Erroll. Scottish nobleman who served as Rector of the University of Glasgow 1761-63.

Reynolds painted a full-length portrait of the Earl of Erroll in coronation robes and holding the baton of Lord High Constable of Scotland from the time Erroll officiated at the coronation of King George III in 1761. Reynolds's ledger records that Erroll sat for his portrait in March and April 1762 and that the fee was 100 guineas. As the present letter demonstrates, this bill was still outstanding at the time of the Earl's death in 1778 and was not settled until 1783.