Page "Joshua Reynolds" Paragraph 17

On 10 August 1784 Allan Ramsay died and the office of Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King therefore became vacant.

Gainsborough felt that he had a good chance of securing it but Reynolds felt that he deserved it and threatened to resign the presidency of the Royal Academy if he did not receive it.

Reynolds noted in his pocket book: " Sept. 1, 2½, to attend at the Lord Chancellor's Office to be sworn in painter to the King ".

However this did not make Reynolds happy, as he wrote to Boswell: " If I had known what a shabby miserable place it is, I would not have asked for it ; besides as things have turned out I think a certain person is not worth speaking to, nor speaking of ", presumably meaning the King.

Reynolds wrote to Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St Asaph, a few weeks later: " Your Lordship congratulation on my succeeding Mr. Ramsay I take very kindly but it is a most miserable office, it is reduced from two hundred to thirty-eight pounds per annum, the Kings Rat catcher I believe is a better place, and I am to be paid only a fourth part of what I have from other people, so that the Portraits of their Majesties are not likely to be better done now, than they used to be, I should be ruined if I was to paint them myself ".