'Higher circles' still. In memory of Arthur Graham Reynolds – 'Sir Barc'

'Higher circles' still. In memory of Arthur Graham Reynolds – 'Sir Barc'

- Another art world piece (after the Daily Telegraph were obviously influenced by yours truly to include a William Roberts painting on their letters page earlier this week) -

The rights for the only images I have found for Jim's LCDRHQ colleague 'Reynolds' are held by the National Portrait Gallery, so I'll direct you to :-

http://npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp59859/arthur-graham-reynolds

My father had referred to his cousin Jim as 'a bit smart' and some (quite a lot really) of Jim's comments about colleagues at LCDRHQ in his letters to Lilian are similarly 'smart', if not cruel in some instances. However lads in their late teens are apt to poke fun at people, especially when the figure of fun is somewhat older and more academic than they. One of those 'on the receiving end' recently passed away in his ninety-ninth year – a renowned Art Historian and V&A Curator.

'Somebody had better tell Reynolds

to join something, preferably the Italian

Army.

(Arthur) Graham Reynolds was born in 1914. An academic student, he gained a First in English Literature from Cambridge University, having entered as a scholar of mathematics (although he apparently would have preferred the History of Art, a course not then available).

Reynolds joined the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1937 and was soon appointed assistant keeper in the joint Department of Engravings, Illustration, Design and Paintings.

Carl Winter, an Australian colleague passed on to Reynolds his enthusiasm for and knowledge of the V& A's portrait miniatures and John Constable collection (nearly 400 works) bequeathed by Constable's descendant Miss Isobel Constable fiftyyears previously. Reynolds was encouraged to concentrate in these areas which awaited further scholarly scrutiny.

In the run-up to the Second World War Reynolds managed to gain considerable knowledge of the V&A's large watercolour collection and of Victorian paintings as he went about the usual business of rehanging galleries and arranging conservation. V&A staff were civil servants - employees of the Ministry of Education, and when war broke out in September 1939 Reynolds was allocated to the Department of Home Security at London Civil Defence Regional Headquarters in the Geological Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington. Here Graham Reynolds met, amongst others, fellow worker Daphne Dent, who had been studying at Huddersfield School of Art but had moved south and came to LCDRHQ in 1941. Reynolds and Dent married in 1943.

Head of Department James O'Gara meted out nicknames to his staff, 'Reynolds' became known as 'Sir Barclay' or 'Sir Barc'. Lilian recalled that his bearing was such that some people thought he really was a Knight of the Realm.

Having become experienced in Home Security's Civil Service ways Graham Reynolds chose to return to the V&A in 1945 and the following year was promoted Deputy Keeper of Paintings. Reynolds took over research into Elizabethan limner (portrait miniaturist) Nicholas Hilliard. Hilliard rendered miniature 'portraiture' for the Royal Courts of Elizabeth 1 and James 1, including two notable portraits of Queen Elizabeth – 'the Pelican' and 'the Phoenix'. The V&A's collection of portrait miniatures, which Reynolds redisplayed, had been stored in a quarry near Bath throughout the war for safe keeping.

Reynolds' research culminated in a 1947 exhibition showing works by both Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, a feat which helped greatly in furthering his reputation, attributing over 100 works to Hilliard and 80-odd to his pupil, Oliver. A book 'English Portrait Miniatures' was published in 1951.

Reynolds supervised moving the Raphael Cartoons into the V&A's 'large gallery' together with the cleaning of the renowned works. 'Painters of the Victorian Scene' (completed in 1953) and 'Victorian Painting' (1966) were Graham Reynolds' influential contributions to a revival in interest in Victorian paintings.

In 1953 Reynolds made a start on cataloguing the works of John Constable, and was to become an acknowledged expert, producing various authoritative publications on Constable and his paintings, the first of which, 'Constable, The Natural Painter' was published in 1965. Reynolds was responsible for first showing the Constables, also having a hand in designing the galleries in which they were hung. A 1967 visit by Reynolds to the USA to give an autumn lecture course at Yale University 'confirmed his lack of inclination for teaching' and he remained with the V&A until he retired at the end of 1974.

Thereafter the Reynoldses' weekend house in Suffolk became their base whence trips were made with travelling exhibitions and lectures on Constable's works and European miniatures. Destinations included New Zealand, Japan and the USA where his 'Constable's England' exhibition for the 'Britain Salutes New York' festival in 1984 brought Graham Reynolds the award of 'a gong', the OBE. The publication of his 'The Later Paintings of John Constable ' that year won him the coveted Mitchell Prize. Another honour was bestowed upon in 1993 when he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

Reynolds was consistently in demand to catalogue miniatures and in 1994 he was appointed Honorary Keeper of Portrait Miniatures at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum. His long-standing involvement with the Royal Collection led to Reynolds being commissioned by the Royal Collection Trust to produce a book illustrating its sixteenth and seventeenth-century miniatures(1999). The award of the CVO (Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, one notch down from a knighthood) followed the successful completion of the tome.

Another instance of - 'move in high circles don't we'.

Daphne Reynolds (nee Dent), January 12th 1918 - December 12^th 2002.

(Arthur) Graham Reynolds, died in October 2013.

Post script -

I'm certain that had he been aware of it, Graham Reynolds would have made short work of Jim's jibe as he was attributed with a particularly dry sense of humour, and the ability to deliver 'penetrating' criticism.