Portrait of Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough Painting Reproductions 6 of 10

1727-1788

English Rococo Painter

Thomas Gainsborough (May 14, 1727 (baptised) - August 2, 1788) was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain.

Gainsborough was born in 1727 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. His father was a schoolteacher involved with the wool trade. At the age of fourteen he impressed his father with his pencilling skills so that he let him go to London to study art in 1740. In London he first trained under engraver Hubert Gravelot but eventually became associated with William Hogarth and his school. One of his mentors was Francis Hayman. In those years he contributed to the decoration of what is now the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children and the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens.

In the 1740s, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr whose illegitimate father, The Duke of Beaufort, gave them a £200 annuity. His work, which was mainly composed of landscape paintings, was not selling very well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748-1749 and concentrated on the painting of portraits.

In 1752, he and family, now including two daughters, moved to Ipswich. Commissions for personal portraits increased but his clientele included mainly local merchants and squires. He had to borrow against his wife's annuity.

In 1759, Gainsborough and his family moved to Bath. There he studied portraits by van Dyck and was eventually able to attract better-paying high society clientele. In 1761 he began to send work to the Society of Arts exhibition in London (now the Royal Society of Arts, of which he was one of the earliest members) and from 1769 to the Royal Academy's annual exhibitions. He selected portraits of known or notorious clients to attract attention. Exhibitions helped him to gain a national reputation and he was invited to become one of the founding members of Royal Academy in 1769. His relationship with the academy, however, was not an easy one and he stopped exhibiting his paintings there in 1773.

In 1774, Gainsborough and his family moved to London to live in Schomberg House, Pall Mall. In 1777 he again began to exhibit his paintings in the Royal Academy, with portraits of contemporary celebrities, including the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, related to the royal family. These exhibitions continued for the next six years.

In 1780, he painted the portraits of King George III and his queen and afterwards received many royal commissions. This gave him some influence with the Academy to state in what form he wished his work to be exhibited. However, in 1783 he took his paintings from the forthcoming exhibition and moved them to Schomberg House. In 1784, royal painter Allan Ramsay died and the King was obliged to give the job to Gainsborough's rival and Academy president, Joshua Reynolds. Gainsborough still remained the favourite painter of the Royal Family.

In his later years, he often painted landscapes of common settings. With Richard Wilson, he was one of the originators of the eighteenth-century British landscape school, and with Joshua Reynolds, he was the dominant British portraitist of the second half of the 18th century.

Gainsborough painted more from his observations of nature than from any application of formal rules. The poetic sensibility of his paintings caused Constable to say, "On looking at them, we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them." He himself said, "I'm sick of portraits, and wish very much to take my viol-da-gam and walk off to some sweet village, where I can paint landskips (sic) and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease."

His best works, such as Portrait of Mrs. Graham; Mary and Margaret: The Painter's Daughters; William Hallett and His Wife Elizabeth, nee Stephen, known as The Morning Walk; and Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher, display the uniqueness (individuality) of his subjects. His only assistant was his nephew Gainsborough Dupont.

Gainsborough died of cancer on 2 August 1788 in his 62nd year.

228 Gainsborough Paintings

Mountain Landscape with Bridge, c.1783/84 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Mountain Landscape with Bridge c.1783/84

Oil Painting
$1293
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9900
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 113 x 133.4 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Seashore with Fishermen, c.1781/82 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Seashore with Fishermen c.1781/82

Oil Painting
$1253
SKU: GAT-9901
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 101.9 x 127.6 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Miss Catherine Tatton, 1786 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Miss Catherine Tatton 1786

Oil Painting
$1269
SKU: GAT-9902
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76 x 64 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

The Hon. Mrs. Thomas Graham, c.1775/77 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

The Hon. Mrs. Thomas Graham c.1775/77

Oil Painting
$1315
Canvas Print
$59.75
SKU: GAT-9903
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 89.5 x 69 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA

Landscape with Shepherd and Flock, 1784 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Landscape with Shepherd and Flock 1784

Oil Painting
$1201
SKU: GAT-9904
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 120.7 x 148 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Landscape, 1780 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Landscape 1780

Paper Art Print
$48.58
SKU: GAT-9905
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 28 x 34.7 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Portrait of Miss Sarah Buxton, c.1776/77 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Miss Sarah Buxton c.1776/77

Oil Painting
$1383
Canvas Print
$60.45
SKU: GAT-9906
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 110 x 87 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

View near King's Bromley, on Trent, Staffordshire, c.1768/70 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

View near King's Bromley, on Trent, Staffordshire c.1768/70

Oil Painting
$1347
Canvas Print
$54.42
SKU: GAT-9907
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 119.4 x 168 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Rest by the Way, 1747 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Rest by the Way 1747

Oil Painting
$1243
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9908
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 101.9 x 147.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Pastoral Landscape (Rocky Mountain Valley with a Shepherd, Sheep, and Goats), c.1783 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Pastoral Landscape (Rocky Mountain Valley with a ... c.1783

Oil Painting
$1165
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9909
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 102.6 x 128 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Landscape with Rustic Lovers, Two Cows, and a Man on a Distant Bridge, c.1755/59 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Landscape with Rustic Lovers, Two Cows, and a Man ... c.1755/59

Oil Painting
$1231
Canvas Print
$64.24
SKU: GAT-9910
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 64.1 x 76.2 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Portrait of a Lady in a Blue Dress, c.1783/85 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of a Lady in a Blue Dress c.1783/85

Oil Painting
$1293
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9911
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.8 x 63.5 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Portrait of Miss Elizabeth Linley, c.1775 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Miss Elizabeth Linley c.1775

Oil Painting
$1238
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9912
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.2 x 63.5 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Portrait of Lady Rodney (Anne Harley), c.1781 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Lady Rodney (Anne Harley) c.1781

Oil Painting
$1361
SKU: GAT-9913
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 127.6 x 101.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Portrait of John Palmer, c.1775 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of John Palmer c.1775

Oil Painting
$1243
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9914
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.2 x 63.8 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Viscountess Folkestone, c.1778 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Viscountess Folkestone c.1778

Oil Painting
$1341
Canvas Print
$98.86
SKU: GAT-9915
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: unknown
Sudley House, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Portrait of Sarah Kirby and John Joshua Kirby, c.1751/52 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Sarah Kirby and John Joshua Kirby c.1751/52

Oil Painting
$1347
Canvas Print
$63.81
SKU: GAT-9916
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.8 x 63.7 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Edward Vernon, c.1753 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Edward Vernon c.1753

Oil Painting
$1269
Canvas Print
$103.93
SKU: GAT-9917
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 126.4 x 103.8 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Joseph Gibbs, c.1755 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Joseph Gibbs c.1755

Oil Painting
$1144
Canvas Print
$77.58
SKU: GAT-9918
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 60.6 x 50.2 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Self Portrait, c.1758/59 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Self Portrait c.1758/59

Oil Painting
$1217
Canvas Print
$105.92
SKU: GAT-9919
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.2 x 63.5 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Portrait of Karl Friedrich Abel, c.1765 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Karl Friedrich Abel c.1765

Oil Painting
$1416
Canvas Print
$102.12
SKU: GAT-9920
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 126.7 x 101.3 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Portrait of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, c.1770 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford c.1770

Oil Painting
$1157
Canvas Print
$105.74
SKU: GAT-9921
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 74.9 x 62.2 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Portrait of David Garrick, 1770 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of David Garrick 1770

Oil Painting
$1313
Canvas Print
$105.56
SKU: GAT-9922
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 75.6 x 63.2 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Portrait of John Henderson, c.1773/75 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of John Henderson c.1773/75

Oil Painting
$1234
Canvas Print
$106.28
SKU: GAT-9923
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 74.3 x 61.6 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Top