Thomas Gainsborough was an English painter, draughtsman and printmaker who specialised in portrait and landscape painting. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he was one of the most important British artists of the 18th century. He painted quickly, and the works of his maturity are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. Despite being a prolific portrait painter, Gainsborough gained greater satisfaction from his landscapes. He is credited as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Gainsborough was a founding member of the Royal Academy.
Paintings by Thomas Gainsborough
Woman in Blue (1780)
The Portrait of a Lady in Blue, or Woman in Blue, is an oil-on-canvas portrait by English artist Thomas Gainsborough, from c. 1775-1785. It is held in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg, to which it was left in 1916 by Alexei Khitrovo, making it Gainsborough's only work in Russia.
It was created during Gainsborough's fifteen-year stay in Bath, Somerset. Some art historians have identified its subject as Elizabeth, Duchess of Beaufort, daughter of Edward Boscawen. The Hermitage Museum also identified the woman as the Duchess of Beaufort.
Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham (1775)
Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham or The Honourable Mrs Graham is a 1777 oil on canvas painting by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough, produced shortly after Mary's marriage to Thomas Graham, the future Lord Lynedoch on 26 December 1774. It was one of the first works to enter the collection of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh after its bequest in 1859 by the heirs of Thomas Graham.
One of Gainsborough's finest portraits, this full-length portrait has become an icon of the Scottish National Gallery.
The Blue Boy (1770)
The Blue Boy is a full-length oil on canvas portrait in oil by English artist Thomas Gainsborough, from c. 1770. It is owned by The Huntington, in San Marino, California. Although both it and its creator are well known, the subject's identity is disputed.
One of Gainsborough's best-known works, The Blue Boy was long thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall (1752–1805), the son of a wealthy hardware merchant, because of his early ownership of the painting. This identification has never been proven, and as Susan Sloman argued in 2013, the likely sitter is Gainsborough's nephew, Gainsborough Dupont (1754–1797). It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait; the youth appears in clothing from the 17th century as the artist's homage to Anthony van Dyck and is very similar to van Dyck's portraits of young boys, especially his double portrait of brothers George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Lord Francis Villiers.
Mr and Mrs Andrews (1748)
Mr and Mrs Andrews is an oil on canvas portrait of about 1750 by Thomas Gainsborough, now in the National Gallery, London. Today it is one of his most famous works, but it remained in the family of the sitters until 1960 and was very little known before it appeared in an exhibition in Ipswich in 1927, after which it was regularly requested for other exhibitions in Britain and abroad, and praised by critics for its charm and freshness. By the post-war years its iconic status was established, and it was one of four paintings chosen to represent British art in an exhibition in Paris celebrating the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Soon the painting began to receive hostile scrutiny as a paradigm of the paternalist and capitalist society of 18th-century England, but it remains a firm popular favourite.
The work is an unusual combination of two common types of painting of the period: a double portrait, here of a recently married couple, Robert and Frances Andrews, as well as a landscape view of the English countryside. Gainsborough's work mainly consisted of these two different genres, but their striking combination side-by-side in this extended horizontal format is unique in Gainsborough's oeuvre, and extremely rare for other painters. Conversation piece was the term for a group portrait that contained other elements and activities, but these normally showed more figures, seen engaged in some activity or in an interior, rather than a landscape empty of people.
Mr and Mrs William Hallett (1785)
Mr and Mrs William Hallett (or The Morning Walk) is an oil on canvas painting by the British painter Thomas Gainsborough, from 1785. It is held in the National Gallery, in London (NG 6209).
Gainsborough painted the work in the summer of 1785, when the subjects, William Hallett (1764–1842) and Elizabeth Stephen (1763/4-1833) were both aged 21, shortly before their wedding at the church of St Lawrence in Little Stanmore on 30 July 1785. Gainsborough was commissioned by Hallett, and paid 120 guineas (£126).
The Market Cart (1786)
The Market Cart is an oil on canvas painting by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1786. It is one of his final landscapes, painted about 18 months before his death. It is held in the National Gallery, in London, to which it was presented by the British Institution's governors in 1830.
The painting depicts a horse-drawn cart, with two girls sat aboard, travelling along a woodland path. It was first exhibited at Gainsborough's own home in Pall Mall in 1786. He would later add a figure of a woodman gathering bundles of wood in 1787. William Dutt, in a book published in 1901, claimed that this painting depicted Gainsborough Lane, which later gave its name to part of the South East Area, Ipswich.
Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (painting) (1785)
Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan is an oil on canvas portrait painted by English artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1785-1787. It was acquired by the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C., in 1937. Mrs. Sheridan (Elizabeth Ann Linley) was a talented musician who enjoyed professional success in Bath and London before marrying Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1773 and abandoning her career. She was 31-33 when she sat for Gainsborough, dying from tuberculosis seven years later at the age of thirty-eight. The portrait was painted between 1785 and 1787, and, was exhibited at Gainsborough's studio at Schomberg House, Pall Mall in 1786.
Elizabeth Ann Sheridan (née Linley) was born in the autumn of 1754 but the exact date varies with sources giving 4, 5 or 7 September, at either Abbey Green or 5 Pierrepont Street, Bath. Her father was Thomas Linley, an English musician and composer, and her mother was Mary Johnson (1729–1820) who was also a talented musician. Elizabeth was the couple's eldest daughter – there was an older brother but he died in early childhood– several of whom inherited their parents musical abilities. It is likely she began singing at concerts when she was only nine years old and made her formal stage début alongside her brother, also named Thomas, in 1767 at Covent Garden, London.
Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1785)
Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire is an oil on canvas portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1785-1787. It is a depiction of the political hostess Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.
During her years in the public eye, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire was painted several times by both Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. Gainsborough's painting of her from around 1785, in a large black hat (a style which she made fashionable, and came to be known as the 'Gainsborough' or 'portrait' hat), has become famous for its history.
Conversation in a Park (1746)
Conversation in a Park (French: Conversation dans un parc) is an oil painting by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1746. A conversation piece, it depicts a couple sitting on a bench in the gardens of a country estate. It is believed to feature a self-portrait of the painter and his wife Margaret, who he married that year.
It may have been loosely inspired by Gainsborough's courtship in Vauxhall Gardens. It certainly represents an idealised view, and represents the sort of society that Gainsborough hopes to paint in his portraits and aspired to join himself.
Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk (1748)
Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk is an oil on canvas landscape painting by English artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1748. It is held in the National Gallery, in London, which bought it in 1875.
Two-thirds of the painting depict a group of deciduous trees displaying autumnal colors, and this mass of trees is surmounted by cloud-laden skies. A path runs through the wooded area, where four peasants and some animals (a cow and two mules) can be seen. In the middle of the clearing, at the end of the horizon line, is depicted a village. The church steeple in the background has been identified as that of St. Mary's Church in the village of Great Henny, located in Great Cornard, Suffolk, though it is unproven.
The Painter's Daughters Chasing a Butterfly (1756)
The Painter's Daughters Chasing a Butterfly is an oil on canvas painting by Thomas Gainsborough, from 1756. It is held in the National Gallery, in London.
The painting depicts the artists daughters, Mary ("Molly", 31 January 1750 - 2 July 1826) and Margaret ("Peggy", 19 August 1751 - 18 December 1820) Gainsborough, engaging in the titular activity.
The Linley Sisters (1772)
The Linley Sisters is an oil on canvas portrait painting by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough, from 1772.
It depicts the singers Elizabeth Ann Linley and her younger sister Mary Linley. Gainsborough was at the time a Bath-based painter focusing on society portraits. The sisters were part of the musical Linley Family based in the city, both daughters of Thomas Linley the elder. Elizabeth famously eloped with the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The two sisters are shown in a natural setting. One of them is seated, with a music book on her lap, while she looks smiling to the viewer. The other sister is up and rests calmly her shoulder upon her sibling, as she looks to the left.