Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was one of the most distinguished British painters of the 18th century, celebrated for his masterful portraiture and lyrical landscapes. Born in Sudbury, Suffolk in 1727, he exhibited early artistic promise and was sent to London as a teenager to train under the French émigré engraver Hubert-François Gravelot. His exposure to the Rococo elegance of Gravelot’s style, as well as to Dutch and Flemish art, laid the groundwork for his later development.

Gainsborough began his career as a landscape painter, inspired by the pastoral scenes of Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema. However, practical needs soon led him to portraiture, which proved more lucrative. His early portraits in Ipswich and later Bath display a refined sensibility and a preference for informality, often placing sitters within expansive, naturalistic settings that blur the boundary between portrait and landscape. By the time he moved to London in 1774, his reputation had soared, rivalling that of his great contemporary Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Although he became a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, Gainsborough maintained a tense relationship with the institution, frequently resisting its formal expectations. He sought spontaneity and natural grace over academic idealisation, a preference evident in works such as The Blue Boy (c. 1770) and Mrs Siddons (1785). His delicate, fluid brushwork, characterised by feathery textures and shimmering colour, imbued his portraits with a sense of immediacy and psychological presence.

In his landscapes, Gainsborough continued to innovate, moving away from topographical accuracy towards an expressive, almost proto-Romantic sensibility. Paintings like The Market Cart (1786) reveal an atmospheric richness that would later influence Constable and the English landscape tradition.

Gainsborough died in 1788, leaving behind a body of work that gracefully merged elegance with naturalism, and portraiture with poetic landscape, securing his place as a cornerstone of British art history.


Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Mrs. William Villebois, full-length, in masquerade dress, with a blue gown and a lace-edged satin skirt, holding a diaphanous wrap, beside a pilaster

Thomas Gainsborough Sudbury 1727-1788 London

A wooded landscape with a herdsman, cows and sheep near a pool

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

Portrait de Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci tenant une partition

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Caroline, 4th Duchess of Marlborough, half-length, in a blue and white dress

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Thomas Brooke (?1755-1820), three-quarter-length, in a green frock coat, resting by a tree in wooded landscape; and Portrait of Sir Richard Brooke, 5th Bt. (1753-1795), three-quarter-length, in a yellow striped waistcoat and blue frock coat, in a wooded landscape

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

Double portrait of Master John Truman Villebois (c.1773-1837) and his brother Henry Villebois (1777-1847)

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Equestrian portrait of Albert, duc d'Arenberg, prince of Barbonçon (1600-1674), in armour, with a blue sash, in a wooded landscape, a battlefield beyond, after Sir Anthony van Dyck

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY, SUFFOLK 1727-1788 LONDON)

Portrait of Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Lord Rodney (1718-1792), full-length, in naval uniform on a ship, with a sea battle in the background

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Lady Anne Thistlethwaite, Countess of Chesterfield (1759-1798), bust-length, in a blue dress

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

A young man reclining on a bank beneath a tree, possibly a self-portrait

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

A wooded landscape with donkeys and figures on a path

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Wooded landscape with a shepherd and sheep on a slope by a river, a mountain beyond

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

Portait of Elizabeth, wife of Richard Colvile (1737-1784), half-length, in a blue dress

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

An old peasant with a donkey in a wooded landscape

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

A wooded landscape with cattle at a watering place

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

Portrait of Prince Ernest Augustus (1771-1851), later King of Hanover, three-quarter-length, in Windsor uniform

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Cattle and a drover on a lane passing a cottage

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

Portrait of a musician, probably Antonín Kammel (1730-1785), half-length, in a green jacket holding a musical score

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Lady Anne Furye, née Greenly (b. 1738), half-length, in a white satin sack-back dress with blue echelles , wearing a blue ribbon and lace choker, with crystal earrings and pompom flowers in her hair

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of a lady, possibly Mary Gibbon, the artist's sister, bust length, in profile, in a lace headdress, a pearl necklace and a brown dress, with a tule shawl and a sprig of wild flowers

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Dr. William Walcot (1719-1806), half-length, in a blue coat, in a feigned oval

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Mrs. Isaac Elton, bust-length

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

A wooded landscape with a peasant, a horse and cattle

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Wooded landscape with a figure, limekiln and farm buildings

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Cattle watering beside a river with a distant view to a tower

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

A cottage with trees reflected in a woodland pool

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

A landscape with a shepherd and his dog, his flock resting by a dune in the foreground

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Elizabeth Prowse, half-length, in a blue and gold dress; and Portrait of Thomas Prowse (1708-1767), of Compton Bishops, half-length, in a red coat

Allan Ramsay, R.A. (Edinburgh 1713-1784)

Portrait of Richard Powney, D.C.L (b. c.1702), half-length, in a brown coat, gold-embroidered waistcoat and white stock, with a tricorne hat under his arm, in a sculpted cartouche

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Portrait of Winifred Silvertop, Mrs John Wright (d. 1780), bust-length, in Van Dyck dress with a blue gauze wrap

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY, SUFFOLK 1727-1788 LONDON)

Portrait of Henry Fane, M.P. (1703-1777), of Wormsley, Oxfordshire, half-length, in a gold-embroidered pink velvet coat and waistcoat, a tricorne hat under his arm, in a feigned oval

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

Figures and pack horses on a wooded track

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1827-1788)

A wooded landscape with a herdsman and his flock

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury, Suffolk 1727-1788 London)

Road through a wood with farm waggon approaching

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (LONDON 1727-1788)

A wooded landscape with drovers and horses

ÉCOLE ANGLAISE DU XVIIIe SIÈCLE, ENTOURAGE DE THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R. A.

Portrait d'un homme, en pied, un paysage à l'arrière-plan

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY, SUFFOLK 1727-1788 LONDON)

A wooded valley landscape with a shepherd and his flock in the foreground

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788)

A landscape with trees by a pool

After Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.

Portrait of a gentleman, thought to be Thomas Vere (c.1681-1766), half-length, in a silk waistcoat and grey embroidered coat

Circle of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (Sudbury 1727-1788 London)

A wooded landscape with a shepherd at rest by a tree

Gainsborough Dupont Sudbury 1754-1797 London

Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Samuel Kilderbee, bust-length, in a black coat and white lace collar

CIRCLE OF THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON)

Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as Frederick Howard, later 5th Earl of Carlisle (1748-1825), as a young man, small full-length, holding a bow in a landscape

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. (LONDON 1727-1788)

Landscape with a peasant family resting