Happy Birthday, Thomas Gainsborough!
Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, England, in 1727. His father was a weaver and a manufacturer of woolen goods and was associated with the wool trade. From a young age, Gainsborough showed an aptitude for drawing and painting; by the time he was ten years old, he had already painted several miniature portraits and small landscapes. When he was thirteen, his father, impressed with his talents, sent him to London to study art. In London, he was trained first under engraver Hubert Gravelot and later under William Hogarth (Marriage à la Mode, A Rake's Progress).
In 1746, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. After an unsuccessful attempt at a career in landscape painting, Gainsborough moved his family back to Sudbury in 1748 and began to concentrate his efforts on portraiture. Although it took some time for Gainsborough to earn a good reputation as a portrait painter, his talent ultimately began to attract the likes of King George III, his queen, and other nobles, and made him a contender for the position of royal painter. In 1769, he was elected a founding member of the London Royal Academy of Arts.
During the 1770s and 80s, Gainsborough developed an innovative form of portraiture, in which he integrated the sitter into the landscape. An example of this can be seen in the wonderfully picturesque portrait of Frances Browne, Mrs. John Douglas, which Gainsborough painted in 1783. In this portrait, Mrs. John Douglas sits in a secluded part of a garden, reading a letter. Engaged in her work, she seems completely unaware of the presence of the painter who is capturing her image. Gainsborough integrates her into the environment beautifully, using similar brushstrokes and colors to paint both the skirt of her dress and the clouds behind her, in the background, and in allowing her lovely brown hair to blend into the rock in front of which she sits. Her quiet and introspective manner, her head resting on her hand, is reminiscent of the traditional portrayal of Melancholy.
