from the students that deference and respect, which can be due only to
the united sense of so considerable a body of artists.

I am,
With the greatest esteem and respect,
GENTLEMEN,
Your most humble
And obedient servant,
JOSHUA REYNOLDS

SEVEN DISCOURSES ON ART

A DISCOURSE
Delivered at the Opening of the Royal Academy, January 2nd, 1769, by the
President.

Gentlemen,--An academy in which the polite arts may be regularly
cultivated is at last opened among us by royal munificence. This must
appear an event in the highest degree interesting, not only to the
artists, but to the whole nation.

It is indeed difficult to give any other reason why an Empire like that
of Britain should so long have wanted an ornament so suitable to its
greatness than that slow progression of things which naturally makes
elegance and refinement the last effect of opulence and power.

An institution like this has often been recommended upon considerations
merely mercantile. But an academy founded upon such principles can never
effect even its own narrow purposes. If it has an origin no higher, no
taste can ever be formed in it which can be useful even in manufactures;
but if the higher arts of design flourish, these inferior ends will be
answered of course.

We are happy in having a prince who has conceived the design of such an
institution, according to its true dignity, and promotes the arts, as the
head of a great, a learned, a polite, and a commercial nation; and I can
now congratulate you, gentlemen, on the accomplishment of your long and
ardent wishes.

The numberless and ineffectual consultations that I have had with many in
this assembly, to form plans and concert schemes for an academy, afford a
sufficient proof of the impossibility of succeeding but by the influence
of Majesty. But there have, perhaps, been times when even the influence
of Majesty would have been ineffectual, and it is pleasing to reflect
that we are thus embodied, when every circumstance seems to concur from
which honour and prosperity can probably arise.

There are at this time a greater number of excellent artists than were
ever known before at one period in this nation; there is a general desire
among our nobility to be distinguished as lovers and judges of the arts;
there is a greater superfluity of wealth among the people to reward the
professors; and, above all, we are patronised by a monarch, who, knowing
the value of science and of