Page "Joshua Reynolds" Paragraph 6

Reynolds travelled homewards overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice and Paris.

He was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about seventeen.

Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi was to remain in Reynolds ' employment as a studio assistant for the rest of the artist's career.

Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

He took rooms in St Martin's Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street, his sister Frances acting as his housekeeper., He achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific.

Lord Edgecumbe recommended the Duke of Devonshire and Duke of Grafton to sit for him, and other peers soon followed, including the Duke of Cumberland, third son of George II, in whose portrait, according to Nicholas Penny " bulk is brilliantly converted into power ".

In 1760 Reynolds moved into a large house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants, on the west side of Leicester Fields ( now Leicester Square ).