Thomas Gainsborough

Introduction
Early life and Suffolk period
Bath period
London period
Legacy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Painting by Thomas Gainsborough showing Mrs. Sheridan seated outdoors in a pink dress, surrounded by lush trees and landscape, with soft light in the background.

Thomas Gainsborough: portrait of Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst

Stringer Lawrence, oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

At a Glance

Thomas Gainsborough summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

"The Birth of Venus," tempera on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485; in the Uffizi, Florence.

Who Painted the Most Expensive Paintings in the World?

Related Questions

How are Thomas Gainsborough’s fancy pictures different from ordinary portraits?
How did Anthony van Dyck influence Thomas Gainsborough’s portraits?
How did French Rococo art influence Thomas Gainsborough’s early paintings?
How did Hubert Gravelot influence Thomas Gainsborough’s early artistic style?
How did Jacob van Ruisdael influence Thomas Gainsborough’s painting Cornard Wood?
How did Jan Wynants influence Thomas Gainsborough’s early landscapes?
How did Rubens influence Peasants Returning from Market and The Harvest Wagon?
How did Thomas Gainsborough use model landscapes in his studio?
How did Thomas Gainsborough’s later portraits of women differ from his earlier portraits?
How did Thomas Gainsborough’s preference for candlelight affect his brushwork?
How did living in Bath change Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait style?
How did the Lake District influence Thomas Gainsborough’s later landscapes?
How do Thomas Gainsborough’s seascapes connect to the Dutch seascape tradition?
How does Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan blend Elizabeth Sheridan with the landscape around her?
How does The Market Cart anticipate the landscape paintings of John Constable?
How does The Woodcutter Courting a Milkmaid reflect French pastoral art?
What did Thomas Gainsborough learn from studying paintings by Peter Paul Rubens?
What does the Suffolk setting contribute to Mr. and Mrs. Andrews?
What kinds of people appear in Thomas Gainsborough’s fancy pictures?
When and where was Thomas Gainsborough born?
When did Thomas Gainsborough become a foundation member of the Royal Academy?
When did Thomas Gainsborough marry Margaret Burr?
When did the National Gallery in London acquire Mr. and Mrs. Andrews?
When was The Blue Boy painted and first exhibited?
Where did Thomas Gainsborough die and where was he buried?
Where is The Blue Boy displayed?
Which Dutch landscape painters influenced Thomas Gainsborough’s early work?
Which drawing materials and techniques did Thomas Gainsborough use?
Which royal portraits did Thomas Gainsborough paint in 1781?
Which theatrical and musical figures did Thomas Gainsborough meet in Bath?
Who has been identified as the possible sitter for The Blue Boy?
Who taught Thomas Gainsborough during his early training in London?
Why did King George III prefer Thomas Gainsborough to Sir Joshua Reynolds?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough believe paintings should be viewed from a distance?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough go to London when he was 13?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough move to Bath in 1759?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough paint landscapes from memory while living in Bath?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough paint portraits even though he preferred landscapes?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough probably not paint his earliest landscapes directly from nature?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough quarrel with the Royal Academy in 1784?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough stop exhibiting at the Royal Academy?
Why did Thomas Gainsborough take little part in Royal Academy discussions?
Why did exhibiting The Blue Boy at the Royal Academy matter to Thomas Gainsborough?
Why does the clothing in The Blue Boy resemble the portraits of Anthony van Dyck?
Why is there an unfinished area on the lap of Mrs. Andrews in Mr. and Mrs. Andrews?
Why is Francisco Goya famous?
What was significant about Henri Matisse’s Jazz?
What is Paul Cézanne famous for?
How was Paul Cézanne educated?
How was Raphael educated?
What did Vincent van Gogh accomplish?
Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear and who did he give it to?
What was Vincent van Gogh’s cause of death?
What are some of Picasso’s most famous pieces?
Why is Picasso important?

Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

National Gallery of Art, Washington - Thomas Gainsborough
Web Gallery of Art - Biography of Thomas Gainsborough

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Thomas Gainsborough - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Thomas Gainsborough

English painter

Written by

Mary Woodall

Director, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England, 1956–64. Author of Gainsborough's Landscape Drawings; editor of The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough.

Mary Woodall

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Thomas Gainsborough (baptized May 14, 1727, Sudbury, Suffolk, Eng.—died August 2, 1788, London) was a portrait and landscape painter, the most versatile English painter of the 18th century. Some of his early portraits show the sitters grouped in a landscape (Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, c. 1750). As he became famous and his sitters fashionable, he adopted a more formal manner that owed something to Anthony Van Dyck (The Blue Boy, c. 1770). His landscapes are...

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