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Sir
Joshua
Reynolds
P.R.A.
Portrait
of Omai
The
portrait
of Omai
by Sir
Joshua
Reynolds
is one
of the
great
icons
of eighteenth-century
art,
a symbol
of an
age
which
saw
unprecedented
advantages
in areas
of travel,
commerce,
the
natural
sciences
and
philosophical
thought.
The
discovery
of Tahiti
and
Omai's
arrival
in England
was
a direct
result
of sceintific
and
economic
advances
which
led
to Cook's
famous
three
voyages,
and
Omai's
depiction
by Reynolds,
owes
much
to Rousseau's
idea
of the
Noble
Savage.
Reynold's
portrait
was
first
exhibited
at the
Royal
Academy
in 1776
and
it is
significant
that
the
next
exhibition
in which
it appeared
was
the
great
'European
Masters
of the
Eighteenth
Century'
exhibition
at the
Royal
Academy
in 1954
when
it appeared
with
important
works
by Frogonard.
Watteau,
Boucher,
Canaletto,
Bellotto,
Batoni
and
Guardi
as well
as by
the
finest
British
painters.
Professor
Waterhouse
wrote
of the
eighteenth
century
that
"it
was
an age
which
demanded
to have
its
portrait
painted
with
legitimate
pride,
and
no painter
better
fitted
to bequeath
to posterity
a truthful
but
sympathetic
series
of historical
images
than
Sir
Joshua
Reynolds
has
ever
lived."
The
portrait
of Omai
is not
only
one
of the
finest
portraits
painted
by one
of the
greatest
portrait
painters,
it epitomizes
more
than
any
other
painting
the
vision
of the
eighteenth
century.
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