Portrait of Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough Painting Reproductions 9 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

Henry, Duke of Cumberland, c.1773/77 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Henry, Duke of Cumberland c.1773/77

Oil Painting
$1825
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9973
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 240.3 x 143 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Princess Sophia, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Princess Sophia 1782

Oil Painting
$1128
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9974
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 56.5 x 42.2 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Queen Charlotte, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Queen Charlotte 1782

Oil Painting
$1176
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9975
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 59.7 x 44.1 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Johann Christian Fischer, c.1774 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Johann Christian Fischer c.1774

Oil Painting
$2232
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9976
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 229 x 150.8 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Princess Elizabeth, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Princess Elizabeth 1782

Oil Painting
$1157
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9977
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 59.4 x 44.1 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Prince Ernest, later Duke of Cumberland, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Prince Ernest, later Duke of Cumberland 1782

Oil Painting
$1108
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9978
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 59 x 44.1 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Prince Augustus, later Duke of Sussex, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Prince Augustus, later Duke of Sussex 1782

Oil Painting
$1144
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9979
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 59.4 x 43.5 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Anne, Duchess of Cumberland, 1783 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Anne, Duchess of Cumberland 1783

Oil Painting
$1313
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9980
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 127.6 x 101.9 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Richard Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, c.1783 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Richard Hurd, Bishop of Worcester c.1783

Oil Painting
$1361
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9981
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 75.2 x 62.5 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Prince Octavius, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Prince Octavius 1782

Oil Painting
$1144
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9982
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 56.8 x 42.2 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Prince Adolphus, later Duke of Cambridge, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Prince Adolphus, later Duke of Cambridge 1782

Oil Painting
$1129
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9983
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 59.4 x 44.1 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Princess Mary, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Princess Mary 1782

Oil Painting
$1126
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9984
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 59 x 44.1 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

The Three Eldest Princesses: Charlotte, Princess Royal, Augusta and Elizabeth, 1784 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

The Three Eldest Princesses: Charlotte, Princess ... 1784

Oil Painting
$2714
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9985
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 129.5 x 179.7 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

John Hayes St Leger, 1782 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

John Hayes St Leger 1782

Oil Painting
$1896
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-9986
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 249.6 x 189 cm
The Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Mrs. George Oswald, c.1770/74 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Mrs. George Oswald c.1770/74

Oil Painting
$1206
Canvas Print
$63.95
SKU: GAT-16469
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 75 x 62.2 cm
Public Collection

The Blue Boy, c.1770 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

The Blue Boy c.1770

Oil Painting
$1573
SKU: GAT-16785
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 178 x 122 cm
Huntington Library and Art Gallery, California, USA

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

The Honourable Mrs Graham c.1775/77

Oil Painting
$2207
Canvas Print
$50.89
SKU: GAT-17292
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 237 x 154 cm
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Clayton Jones, c.1744/45 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Clayton Jones c.1744/45

Oil Painting
$1136
Canvas Print
$64.24
SKU: GAT-17534
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.2 x 63.5 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

Major John Dade of Tannington, Suffolk, c.1755 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Major John Dade of Tannington, Suffolk c.1755

Oil Painting
$1334
Canvas Print
$63.39
SKU: GAT-17535
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76.2 x 64.8 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

Wooded Landscape with a Cottage and Shepherd, c.1748/50 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Wooded Landscape with a Cottage and Shepherd c.1748/50

Oil Painting
$1048
Canvas Print
$59.81
SKU: GAT-17536
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 43.2 x 54.3 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

Coastal Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock, c.1783/84 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Coastal Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock c.1783/84

Oil Painting
$1082
Canvas Print
$63.95
SKU: GAT-17537
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 63.5 x 76.2 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

Girl with a Book Seated in a Park, c.1750 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Girl with a Book Seated in a Park c.1750

Oil Painting
$1259
Canvas Print
$67.32
SKU: GAT-17538
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 76 x 66.7 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

Landscape with Stream and Weir, c.1750/53 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Landscape with Stream and Weir c.1750/53

Oil Painting
$1405
Canvas Print
$66.06
SKU: GAT-17539
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 80 x 94.6 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

Mary Little, later Lady Carr, c.1765 by Gainsborough | Painting Reproduction

Mary Little, later Lady Carr c.1765

Oil Painting
$1580
Canvas Print
$61.43
SKU: GAT-17540
Thomas Gainsborough
Original Size: 127 x 101.6 cm
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA

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