Gainsborough, << GAYNZ buh ruh, >> Thomas (1727-1788), was one of the greatest British painters. He is famous for his portraits, but he also painted many landscapes. Gainsborough further developed the conversation piece, a type of painting that consisted of a group of individuals in a landscape or an interior setting.
Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. His father was a cloth merchant. Thomas showed a talent for drawing and painting and went to London to study under a silversmith at the age of 13. One of his first instructors was the French artist Hubert Francois Gravelot. The landscapes of the Dutch painters Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Wynants also influenced him. After Gainsborough married in 1746, he began painting portraits. In 1759, he and his family moved to Bath, a famous resort.
In Bath, Gainsborough won immediate success by painting portraits of the fashionable tourists. As was customary at this time, his portraits intentionally flattered his subjects. But Gainsborough also possessed a remarkable sensitivity to his subjects, whom he portrayed as charming and graceful. In this respect, he continued the tradition of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, who had painted at the English court from 1632 to 1641.
In 1768, Gainsborough helped found the Royal Academy of Arts, a London-based association of artists. He moved to London in 1774. There he painted portraits of King George III and the royal family. Gainsborough also painted portraits of leading aristocrats, politicians, writers, and actors of the day. His celebrated subjects included the Irish dramatist and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan and the British prime minister William Pitt.
Gainsborough’s early portraits are detailed in style. His later ones are less detailed and more sketchy. Gainsborough’s most famous work is The Blue Boy, an elegant portrait completed in 1770. It shows the artist’s preference for cool blue and green colors, in contrast to the reds, yellows, and browns of his rival portrait painters, Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Romney. At the end of his life, Gainsborough returned to his first love, landscape painting.
