Frances Reynolds (1729 – 1807)

• Was a British portrait and history artist, writer.
• The youngest sister of Sir Joshua Reynolds, she kept his house for many years after he came to London.
• But when her nieces, the Misses Palmer, were old enough to take her place, she left his house forever.
• Her brother made her an allowance, and she went first to Devon; and then, in 1768, to stay with a Miss Flint in Paris, where Reynolds visited her.

• She later lived as a lodger of Dr. John Hoole, whose portrait, prefixed to the first edition of his translation of Ariosto, was painted by her. 

• On her brother's death she took a large house in Queen's Square, Westminster, where she exhibited her own works.

• She died, unmarried, on 1 November 1807, aged 78. 

• She was a friend of Samuel Johnson who was complimentary about her "Essay on Taste" (privately printed, 1784).

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