少年時,雷諾茲受泰奧弗拉斯托斯的柏拉圖主義哲學影響,這種影響在他後來一生的軌跡中都可以找到。雷諾茲的摘錄簿中記錄著泰奧弗拉斯托斯、普魯塔克、塞內卡、奧維德、馬克·安東尼、威廉·莎士比亞、約翰·彌爾頓、亞歷山大·蒲柏、約翰·德萊頓等人的言論與列奧納多·達·芬奇、Charles Alphonse Du Fresnoy和安德魯·菲利比安的藝術理論。[1]對雷諾茲音影響最大的一本書是喬納森·理察森的著作《一篇關於繪畫的隨筆》(An Essay on the Theory of Painting,1715年),其由雷諾茲註釋的抄本失傳近200年,最後出現在劍橋書店,署名「J. Reynolds Pictor」。[1]
1749年,雷諾茲遇到了奧古斯特·凱珀爾,並受邀參凱珀爾指揮的英國皇家海軍的HMS Centurion。他隨船遊覽了里斯本、阿爾及爾和米諾卡島。並從米諾卡島啟程前往里窩那,隨後抵達羅馬,[3]在那裡逗留了兩年。[4]在此期間患上了嚴重的傷寒,幾乎導致耳聾,這也是爲什麽後來其肖像常見有號角狀助聽器的原因。雷諾茲經由佛羅倫薩、博洛尼亞、威尼斯[5]和巴黎[6]歸國。他的旅伴是朱塞佩·馬奇( Giuseppe Marchi),當時年界17歲。[7]1770年之後,馬奇成爲了雷諾茲終身的工作室助理。[7]
Martin Postle, 『Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723–1792)』, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009. Retrieved 24 Sep 2010.
P. J. Marshall and John A. Woods (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke. Volume VII. January 1792–August 1794 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 75-76.
James Boswell, Life of Johnson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Charles Robert Leslie and Tom. Taylor, Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds (London: John Murray, 1865, 2 volumes).
Ian McIntyre, Joshua Reynolds. The Life and Times of the First President of the Royal Academy (London: Allen Lane, 2003).
Martin Postle, 『Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723–1792)』, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009. Retrieved 24 Sep 2010.
John Barrell, The Political Theory of Painting from Reynolds to Hazlitt (1986).
A. Graves and W. V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1899–1901, 4 volumes).
F. W. Hilles, The Literary Career of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1936).
Derek Hudson, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Personal Study (1958).
J. Ingamells and J. Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds (2000).
E. Malone (ed.), The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1798, 3 volumes).
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, 1723–92 (1992).
J. Northcote, Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, knt. (1813–15).
J. Northcote, The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1818, 2nd edition, 2 volumes).
Martin Postle, Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity (Tate, 2005). ISBN 1-85437-564-4
Martin Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Subject Pictures (1995).