James Northcote

James Northcote was born in Plymouth, Devon, October 22, 1746 and died in London, July 13, 1831.

Largely self-taught before his arrival in London in 1771, Northcote established himself as a portraitist after serving as a pupil and assistant to Sir Joshua Reynolds. He traveled to Italy in 1777 and returned to London in 1780, thereafter exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy. He was elected Academician in 1787, a year after beginning a series of nine paintings for Josiah Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. A prolific painter of both portraits and history, Northcote is equally celebrated as a writer. His Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, published in 1813, is still used by scholars today.