There were so many English artists that in 1768 the Royal Academy was founded, with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president.

It was to the students of the Royal Academy that he delivered his Discourses upon Art, setting forth the principles which he judged to be sound.
He was an indefatigably hard worker until within two years of his death in 1792.

All classes of men esteemed and regretted him, clouded though his intercourse with them had been by the deafness from which he suffered during the greater part of his life.
Goldsmith, the author of the _Vicar of Wakefield_, wrote this character 'epitaph' for him: Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind, He has not left a wiser or better behind.
His pencil was striking, resistless and grand; His manners were gentle, complying and bland; Still born to improve us in every part, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart.
To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering When they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing.
When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios and stuff, He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.
By flattery unspoiled ...
The end is missing, for while Goldsmith was versifying so feelingly about his friend, death overtook the writer, eighteen years before the subject of the epitaph..