Who has been identified as the possible sitter for The Blue Boy?

While some sources identify the sitter of The Blue Boy as Jonathan Buttall, the son of a London ironmonger and a close friend of Thomas Gainsborough, his identity remains a subject of historical debate. Other historians have suggested that the subject may instead be the artist’s nephew, Gainsborough Dupont.12

Because the portrait was likely not commissioned—evidenced by the fact that it was painted over an existing portrait on a used canvas—the exact identity of the youth continues to be discussed by scholars.12