Thomas Gainsborough: 12 works

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

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

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

'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.'

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

'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.'

'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).'

'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.'

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

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

'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.'