Sir Joshua Reynolds

(Plympton 1723-1792 Richmond)

Portrait of Richard Yeo, half-length, in a brown coat, seated at work with a medal on the table

Footnotes

Provenance
With Henry Graves & Co., London
Sale, Christie's, London, 27 May 1882, lot 162
With Graves & Co., London
Sale, Christie's, London, 24 November 1894, lot 11 (sold for £9–19s.–6d. to Twickenham?)
Collection of Catholina Lambert (1834–1923), Bella Vista Castle, Paterson, New Jersey, by whom sold
Sale, American Art Association, New York, 21–24 February 1916, lot 221
With Count Vittorio Emanuele Barbaroux, Milan, circa 1950s

Literature
A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, 1899, vol. III, p. 1080
Sir W. Armstrong, Sir Joshua Reynolds, London, 1900, p. 237

Engraved
A.N. Sanders, 1877

Richard Yeo came to public recognition as a leading medallist and engraver of coins and gems in 1746, when he was commissioned to produce the official medal celebrating the Duke of Cumberland's victory at the Battle of Culloden. In 1749 he was appointed second engraver to the Royal Mint, during which time he made a significant contribution to the production of the new coinage under George III. Yeo went on to succeed as Chief Engraver in 1775, a position he held until his death in 1779. A number of pattern-coins and medals designed by Yeo are now in the collection of the British Museum, along with silver season tickets he designed earlier in his career for the Vauxhall Pleasure gardens, carrying images symbolising the Arts and pleasures associated with the gardens.

Yeo was actively involved with the Society of Artists from 1760, and became a director in 1765. In 1768 he resigned to become a Founder Member of the Royal Academy, and as such was one of the few early Academicians who was not a painter or sculptor. Despite this, Yeo's authority within the Royal Academy schools is suggested by the prominent placement he takes in Johann Zoffany's painting Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy (1771-2) where he is shown checking the position of the life model with Zuccarelli. Yeo's impact on Reynolds himself is also evident in that Reynolds's ledgers reference 'yeos yellow', a lake pigment made by the medallist.

We are grateful to Dr Martin Postle for confirming the attribution to Reynolds, based on first-hand inspection of the painting, and to Prof. David Mannings for endorsing the attribution, on the basis of a photograph.