1 OF 16

Laurence Sterne

1 of 16 portraits of Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne

by Sir Joshua Reynolds
oil on canvas, 1760
50 1/8 in. x 39 1/2 in. (1273 mm x 1003 mm)
Purchased with help from Mr and Mrs Lewis Golden, The Art Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, H.M. Government and the results of a public appeal, 1975
Primary Collection
NPG 5019

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Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), Writer and divine; author of 'Tristram Shandy'. Sitter in 16 portraits.

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Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), Painter and first President of the Royal Academy. Artist associated with 1413 portraits, Sitter associated with 38 portraits.

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The writer and curate Laurence Sterne held the living of Sutton in Yorkshire and other church preferments between 1738-59 including the prebendary of York Cathedral. He never felt entirely at ease with a religious life, claiming, ' books, painting, fiddling, and shooting were my amusements' and in 1759 published his novel Tristram Shandy. In Reynolds' classically composed portrait Sterne's arm rests upon the manuscript of his first novel which was, at the time the portrait was painted, the talk of London where it was published a year later than in York. Sterne's discursiveness, relaxed style and raciness of expression were a novelty in eighteenth-century literature; immensely popular, Samuel Richardson called the book 'execrable', and Samuel Johnson always spoke of Sterne, whose other great work was his Sentimental Journey of 1768, with scorn.