In addition to being one of England's finest talents, the eighteenth-century painter Thomas Gainsborough was a superb portraitist who left an indelible mark on the genre. The basic facts of Gainsborough's beginnings are as follows: The artist was born in 1727 in the quiet Suffolk town of Sudbury, about fifty miles northeast of London. The fifth son of nine children, he was sent at age thirteen to London to become the assistant and pupil of the French engraver Hubert Gravelot; later he studied painting with Francis Hayman, who specialized in historical scenes.

In 1746, when he was nineteen years old, he married Margaret Burr, who received an annuity of 200 pounds all her life. This money allowed Gainsborough to continue to paint without ever having to worry about the sale of his works generating enough income to support his wife and two daughters, Mary and Margaret.

Around 1748, Gainsborough left London and returned to Sudbury, but later moved to Ipswich for seven or eight years. His success as a portrait artist, however, came in 1759 when he moved to the provincial town of Bath, an English resort town which was then attracting the country's rich and famous in large numbers. He remained there until 1774, when the growing demand for his portraits led him to resettle in London.

During the first half of the eighteenth century England experienced a period of burgeoning prosperity. An increasingly affluent and culturally aware middle class arose and began to patronize the arts and literature, especially in London, then the center of fashion and luxury production. This patronage led to a growth in the capital's artistic community as well as to the development of what is now called the British school of painting.

As in Holland in the seventeenth century, the increased wealth of the English middle classes resulted in a heightened desire for painted portraits, the only branch of painting in which an artist of the period could achieve prosperity.

This taste for portraiture was met essentially by two native sons: Thomas Gainsborough and his rival, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), both of whom came to be recognized as the leading portrait painters of their day. Gainsborough and Reynolds were rivals in the sense that they were in direct competition with one another for the limited market for expensive, fashionable portraits. However, contrary to popular belief, each artist respected the other's talents. In fact, Reynolds owned a work by Gainsborough.

Thomas Gainsborough was extremely astute to move his family to Bath in 1759. The town was one of England's most fashionable winter resorts, and it was there that he gained the attention of wealthy Londoners as well as developed an elegant and relaxed portrait style that was suitable for this clientele.

Gainsborough's commercial success can be assessed by the over 1,000 portraits he painted. His early style was formed by a study of the figures of Jean-Antoine Watteau and other seventeenth-century French Rococo painters. However, his approach was much more serious than the frivolous lightheartedness of their images. Also notable in Gainsborough's portraits is the influence of the seventeenth-century Flemish artist Sir Anthony van Dyck, specifically in regard to posture and gesture as well as the handling of light, color and textures. In fact, it has been said that Gainsborough combined the grace of Watteau's figures with the cool elegance and attenuation of van Dyck's lords and ladies.

Although Gainsborough derived inspiration from earlier Continental painters, he achieved in his half- and full-length portraits a freshness and lyric grace all his own. Despite many of the Grand Manner elements contained within his work, Gainsborough's portraits suggest the vigor and immediacy of sketches.

The artist is celebrated for the beauty of his color, the delicacy of his touch, and the elegance and refinement of his sitters. Like all eighteenth-century portraitists, Gainsborough took great care to paint his sitters' faces accurately. However the rest of the paintings' surfaces shimmer with flashing brush strokes. This feathery brush work was achieved by using light, rapid strokes in a subtle palette. In fact, as a colorist, Gainsborough has had few rivals among English painters. He generally preferred cool, fresh colors, chiefly greens and blues, thinly applied. Typically Gainsborough's loose brush strokes masterfully catch the soft shimmer of light playing over the various fabrics of his sitter's clothing, a spectacular feature of his work.

Gainsborough also was careful to control the light and dark values of his portraits, keeping in mind the conditions that they would meet in their permanent homes. Remember that the walls of eighteenth-century British mansions were seldom brightly lighted, with natural light being blocked by heavy window treatments, and candles were the normal illumination after sundown. Gainsborough's tendency to slightly elongate his figures made his subjects appear regal and elegant despite their informal poses. Interestingly, Gainsborough never worked without the sitter in front of him. However, their clothing and jewelry usually were studio props.

Among his favorite subjects were his two daughters, Margaret and Mary. Gainsborough painted at least five double and several individual portraits of them at various ages. Each of these works convey the close relationship the two girls shared. Except for his nephew and apprentice, Gainsborough Dupont, Gainsborough employed no assistants to help paint drapery or the backgrounds of his portraits, an unusual practice for his day. However, even without such help, his speed was phenomenal.

Although Gainsborough was a favorite among England's aristocratic class, he had little taste for the high society he painted, preferring to paint landscapes in his spare time. These idealized landscapes were created in the studio on the basis of small models put together from moss, pebbles and other materials. Fashioned after the work of such seventeenth-century Dutch masters of landscape as Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Wynants, these works were among the first great landscapes painted in England. However, as there was no market for this genre, Gainsborough settled for occasionally posing his figures in front of a landscape background. Thus some patrons got a bonus, almost two paintings in one!

Gainsborough received many accolades for his genteel, fashionable portraits. In 1768 he was invited to become one of thirty-six founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts, a position that carried valuable prestige. This group of artists was not only made up of England's leading painters, but was headed by Gainsborough's rival, Sir Joshua Reynolds and sponsored by King George III. Gainsborough, however, later withdrew from the Academy, preferring to exhibit his paintings in his own home, Schomberg House, Pall Mall.

Word of Gainsborough's reputation eventually spread from Bath to London, and in 1774 the artist moved his large, lucrative portrait practice there. In a few years, he was sparring with Sir Joshua Reynolds for the enormous profit and prestige of being the leading portrait painter in Britain and even in Europe.

After he settled in London Gainsborough became more experimental than at any other time of his career, painting much more freely and broadly. In his last years, he excelled in fancy pictures, a pastoral genre that featured idealized subjects.

Gainsborough's artistic and commercial success continued until his death in 1788. With his portraits, he not only immortalized an extraordinary group of people, but succeeded in providing a unique window to eighteenth-century England. His canvases document the physical look of Britain's aristocrats, soldiers, squires, statesmen, and assorted folk of leisure and means, as well as the very spirit, style and culture of these leading citizens. Most importantly, however, Gainsborough had a lasting and significant influence on British painting and portraiture in general.

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