.NjU4MA.NDU2Nw

public by his portrait of Earl Nugent, numerous commissions followed, and in 1761 he began to exhibit with the Society Artist of Great Britain, in Spring Gardens, London, an institution which he continued to support till 1768, when he became one of the founders of the Royal Academy, being one of the thirty-six original members. He afterwards, in 1783, practically retired, owning to what he considered the unworthy place that has been assigned to his group " The King's Daughters." He withdrew his pictures, and after 1784 never exhibited again at the Royal Academy. After a serious quarrel with Thicknesses, he removed to London in 1774, establishing his studio in a portion of Schomberg House, and there prosecuted his art with splendid success. In 1779 he was at the height f his fame, all the eminent men of the day sat to him. and he was the favorite painter of the King and the Royal Family, being in portraiture the only worthy rival of Reynolds, and in landscape, of the distinguished Richard Wilson. In 1788, while attending the trial of Warren Hastings in Westminster Hall, he caught a chill from an open window, a cancerous humour developed itself, he died on the 2nd of August, and was buried in Kew Churchyard. Personally Gainsborough possessed all the enthusiasm, the airy vivacity, the hot impulsiveness that are commonly associated with artistic temperament. He was devoted to art in every form. Fond of company, he loved to associate with players and musicians, he was himself a performer on various instruments, and for him Garrick was "the greatest of living men in every respect, and one worth studying in every action. Quick of temper, he was also right generous of hand and heart, and when the long-estranged Reynolds visited him on his death-bed, Gainsborough parted with him with the oft-quoted words of perfect brotherhood: "We are all going to heaven, and Van Dyck is of the company."