Thomas Gainsborough: 12 works

A slideshow of artworks auto-selected from multiple collections

By Google Arts & Culture

Peter Darnell Muilman, Charles Crokatt and William Keable in a Landscape (c.1750) by Thomas GainsboroughTate Britain

'This is one of only a few group portraits by Gainsborough, who generally preferred to paint individuals.'

Ann Ford (later Mrs. Philip Thicknesse) (1760) by Thomas Gainsborough (British, b.1727, d.1788)Cincinnati Art Museum

'As Gainsborough himself would later put it: "(She was) partly admired and partly laugh'd at at every Tea Table."'

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'Gainsborough's full-length portrait of 4th Duke of Argyll shows him in his magnificent peer's robes, a perfect subject for the artist's dazzling brushwork.'

Miss Montagu (circa 1774) by Thomas GainsboroughChrysler Museum of Art

'Portraitists in America learned how to give dignity and elegance to their sitters by studying the works of Gainsborough and his British contemporaries.'

Portrait of James Christie (1730 - 1803) (Main View)The J. Paul Getty Museum

'Gainsborough depicted the cultivated auctioneer leaning on one of the artist's own landscape paintings and holding a piece of paper in his right hand, perhaps an auction list.'

Portrait of Queen Charlotte of England (1781/1781) by Thomas Gainsborough, studioGallery of Old and New Masters, Staatliches Museum Schwerin / Ludwigslust / Güstrow

'The landscape always plays a major role in Gainsborough's portraits.'

The Mall in St. James's Park The Mall in St. James's Park (ca. 1783) by Thomas GainsboroughThe Frick Collection

'This picture, already described by critics in the year it was painted--1783--as "very fine" and "magnificent," was recognized as something new for Gainsborough--neither one of his usual portraits with a landscape background nor a pure landscape, but instead a complex design of rhythmically arranged figures shown gliding effortlessly along the broad paths of a beautiful park.'

Portrait of Sir Richard Brinsley Sheridan (c. 1785) by Thomas GainsboroughThe Frick Pittsburgh

'He was part of a remarkable circle of writers and artists, including Gainsborough, Reynolds, and John Constable, that met at the home of Sir George Beaumont (whose portrait by Reynolds is also in the collection).'

Portrait of William Anne Hollis, 4th Earl of Essex, Presenting a Cup to Thomas Clutterbuck of Watford (Main View)The J. Paul Getty Museum

'In 1784 the Earl of Essex commissioned the painting by Gainsborough to commemorate the presentation of the cup, which had actually taken place twelve years earlier.'

Mrs Elizabeth Moody with her sons Samuel and Thomas (c.1779-85) by Gainsborough, ThomasDulwich Picture Gallery

'The painting is typical of Gainsborough's late manner, where glamorous women walk through sketchy landscapes in superb costumes.'

Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1785-1787) by Thomas GainsboroughNational Gallery of Art, Washington DC

'The distinct textures of rocks, foliage, silk, and hair are unified by the strong, animated rhythms of Gainsborough's brush.'

Diana and Actaeon (1785 - 1788) by Thomas GainsboroughRoyal Collection Trust, UK

'This painting was acquired from the studio sale of Gainsborough Dupont (the artist's nephew) in 1797; it was probably therefore in Gainsborough's studio at the time of his death in 1788.'

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