Portrait of Thomas Gainsborough

Portrait of Thomas Gainsborough
Portrait of Thomas Gainsborough
(English, 1742-1810)

Portrait of Thomas Gainsborough

Dateca. 1765
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 49 × 39 3/4 in. (124.5 × 101 cm) frame: 58 1/2 × 49 in. (148.6 × 124.5 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mrs. H. Chase
Object number1942.22
Subject(s)
  • portraits
  • men
  • book
Collection
  • Old Master
  • European
Sub-Collection(s)
  • Northern European, English
  • British
  • English
On View
On view
Label Text

While the identity of the sitter has never been questioned (the celebrated English portraitist, Thomas Gainsborough), precisely who captured this striking likeness has remained a mystery until very recently. Gainsborough, along with Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, was one of the most successful artists of his generation. He exhibited regularly at the Society of Artists and was a founding member of the Royal Academy when it was established in 1768. On the basis of the sitter’s well-appointed attire, complete with fur-lined jacket, red vest with elaborate gold braid trim, and white silk stockings, this portrait must have been done when Gainsborough was at the height of his artistic powers and living in Bath, one of England’s most fashionable winter resorts. His identity as a gentleman and intellectual, signaled by the leather-bound volumes, speaks to the social status that Gainsborough had achieved by this point in his career. Only the porte-crayon, a common drawing implement that he grasps lightly with elegant tapered fingers, directly identifies him as an artist.

Crosse is a lesser known artist, who distinguished himself more as a miniature portrait painter. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest that Gainsborough may have granted him the privilege of painting his likeness as a professional favor to an aspiring artist, who was handicapped, having been born deaf and mute.

 


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