Graham Reynolds (1914-2013) was an Art historian and V&A curator. He was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge. After his graduation, he joined the staff of Victoria and Albert Museum in 1937 and became Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings and of Paintings. In 1994, he was appointed Honorary Keeper of Portrait Miniatures at the Fitzwilliam Museum. His art has appeared in many publications including English Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Victorian Painting, and Portrait Miniatures. Reynolds was a leading expert on the art of John Constable and of portrait miniatures. For John Constable’s, works he wrote the standard catalogue raisonné. This catalogue was published in two parts in 1984 and 1996; two volumes each, divided at the year when Constable married Maria Bicknell.
His approach exemplified connoisseurship and traditional scholarship and he was fiercely opposed to the 1970s’ New Art History. Early in his career Reynolds wrote a work on Jacobean and Elizabethan costume, a résumé of the work and life of Bewick Thomas, and a book on English portrait miniatures that was re-issued by Cambridge University Press in 1988 after being revised. In 1953 the artist produced a survey of Victorian painting. He also wrote 2 of the Thames & Hudson World of Art series. In 1947, the artist curated an exhibition at the V&A to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Nicholas Hilliard, the miniaturist. He used an extensive collection of miniatures at the museum. This exhibition helped to differentiate Nicholas from Isaac Oliver. In 1974, Reynolds retired from the V&A and moved to Suffolk with his wife.
