Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, England in 1727. His father was a clothier and his mother was a cultivated woman whose avocation was painting pictures of flowers. At age 13, his father sent him to an apprenticeship with a silversmith which was considered to be a good approach toward an artistic career in Gainsborough's time. During the early part of his career Gainsborough made a reasonable living as a painter in his native Suffolk, England. In 1759 he moved to Bath, persuaded by his friend Lt. Governor Philip Thicknesse, who knew that the clientele would be wealthier and more widespread there. Painters were allowed to hang their pictures in the spa so they would be seen by prospective patrons. Gainsborough enhanced his work by incorporating the landscape in his compositions. These "fancy pictures", as they were called, contributed greatly to his success. The free time financial success allowed Gainsborough was invested in artistic experiments. The most radical of which was painting on glass, which was mounted on a wooden light box with candles in the back. Ten of these transparencies or in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Gainsborough exhibited at the Royal Academy in London until a disagreement prompted his succession in 1784. Relying on his memory he continued to paint the English countryside of his youth until his death on August 2, 1788.

Thomas Gainsborough Images:
The Blue Boy