REINAGLE, Ramsay Richard

1775 - 1862

Ramsay Richard Reinagle was born in London on 19 March 1775, son of artist Philip Reinagle (1749–27 November 1833) and his wife Jane née Austin (1754-1823), who married at Marylebone, London on 24 July 1771. Ramsay was instructed his father and was a painter of landscapes, portraits and sporting subjects and exhibited at the Royal Academy as early as 1788 and afterwards went to Italy and was studying in Rome in 1796 and, to study from the Dutch master, made visits to Holland. On his return home he painted for a time at Robert Barker's (1739-1808) Panorama in Leicester Square, London then entered a partnership with Thomas Edward Barker (1769-1849). They produced panoramas of Rome, the Bay of Naples, Florence, Gibraltar, Algeciras Bay, and Paris, but in 1816 they disposed of their exhibition to Henry Aston Barker (1774-1856) and Robert Burford (1791-1861). In 1805, Reinagle was elected an associate of the [Old] Society of Painters in Watercolours and in 1806 a full member becoming its treasurer in 1807 and its president 1808-1812, when it was dissolved. Between 1806 and 1812 he sent to its exhibitions some sixty-seven drawings, mostly Italian landscapes, and scenery of the English lakes. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy, of which he became an Associate on 7 November 1814 and an academician on 10 February 1823, but was forced to resign on 18 October 1848, after exhibiting another artist's work as his own. He also exhibited fifty-one works at the British Institution, the majority being landscapes, and several works at the Norwich Society of Artists 1815-1822 including 'Scene composed in Richmond Park', 'Sybil's Temple and part of the Town of Tivoli' also a full-length portrait of Thomas Coke, Esq. which he had shown at the Royal Academy. He was a clever copyist of the old masters, and is said to have been much employed by a picture-dealer in restoring and 'improving' their works and in 1848 he sent to the Royal Academy, as his own work, a small picture of 'Shipping a Breeze and Rainy Weather off Hurst Castle' painted by a young artist named Joseph William Yarnold (1817-23 August 1852), which he had purchased at a broker's shop, and to which he had made some slight alterations. Attention was called to the deception, and a full inquiry made by the academy resulting in his being called upon to resign his diploma as a royal academician. He continued to exhibit at the academy until 1857, but in his later years sank into poverty, but was assisted by a pension from the funds of the academy. Ramsay Richard Reinagle died at Chelsea on 17 November 1862. He is represented in the FitzWilliam Museum, Cambridge and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. His youngest son, George Philip Reinagle was also a painter.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 12 Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital
1788 381 Dead Game
         412 Llanrwst Bridge, North Wales



from [no address]
1857 147 The West Road to Rydal, from Ambleside
         166 The Boulder Stone, and View of Borrowdale

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Works by This Artist