  About the Artwork
  
  
  "Fancy Pictures," which were a combination portrait and genre scene, became very popular at the end of the eighteenth century. One type consisted of middle-class patrons, dressed as peasants or farmers, in staged scenes of rural life. In this large canvas painted for Mr. Macklin, a London print seller, Reynolds represents his patron's wife spinning, his daughter feeding chickens, her friend Miss Potts carrying a sheaf of wheat on her head, and the family dog waiting attentively, all outside a country cottage. The grand scale, formal composition, poses, and coloration are all reminiscent of Italian painting, which Reynolds championed as first president of the Royal Academy, but the graceful light and sentiment are his personal invention.
  
  
  Title
  The Cottagers
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1788
  
  Artist
  Joshua Reynolds
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1723-1792
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  English
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 95 × 71 inches (241.3 × 180.3 cm)
  Framed: 112 × 87 1/2 × 7 1/4 inches (284.5 × 222.3 × 18.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Mrs. K. T. Keller
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  55.278
  
  
  Copyright
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