Ramsey Richard Reinagle was born in 1775, the son of the animal and landscape painter, Philip Reinagle (1749-1833). Ramsey was taught by his father, whose style he followed. He exhibited at the Royal Academy as early as 1788. He subsequently went to Italy where he studied in Rome in 1796 before visiting Holland to study from the Dutch masters. After his return home, he painted for a time at Robert Barker's Panorama in Leicester Square and then entered into partnership with Thomas Edward Barker, Robert's eldest son. They produced panoramas of the Bay of Naples, Florence, Gibraltar, Algesiras Bay and Paris.
In 1805, Reinagle was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Watercolours and subsequently became treasurer and president. He exhibited landscapes in oils at the Royal Academy, of which he became an associate in 1814 and an academician in 1823. He continued to exhibit at the Academy until 1857. In his final years of poverty he was assisted by a pension from the academy. He died in 1862.
From the guide to the Papers relating to Ramsey Richard Reinagle (1775-1862), painter, 1812-1980, 1812-1980, (The University of Nottingham)
