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GAINSBOROUGH 1727-1788


THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, portrait and landscape-painter, one of the greatest English artists, was born at Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1727, the day of his baptism being the 14th May. His father, a well-to-do clothier and crapemaker, had him educated at the grammar school of the place, where Mr. Burroughs, the boy's uncle, was master; but as he was never happy unless when sketching the rustic scenery around him, he was sent to London, at the age of fourteen to study art under Henri d'Anville, the excellent French engraver and designer who was known as Gravelot, a name he had assumed on his coming to England in 1733. Gravelot taught Gainsborough drawing and etching, and upon subsequently recognizing his talent, obtained for him admission to the St. Martin's Lane Academy, where he worked for three years under the historical painter and designer, Frank Hayman. He then set up on his own account in Hatton Garden, where he did a little modelling and produced a few landscapes; but the experiment lasted barely a year and about 1744 he returned to Sudbury, established himself as a portrait-painter at Ipswich, and in 1745 married Margaret Burr, a young lady whose brother was a traveller in his father's employ. It is there that he made the acquaintance of the draughtsman Joshua Kirby, who subsequently became the instructor of the future George III then Prince of Wales; their acquaintance ripened into a warm friendship which lasted till Kirby's death in 1771. After Kirby had left for London, it was Gainsborough's good fortune to become acquainted with Sir Philip Thicknesse, who had just been appointed Governor of Landguard Fort, Ipswich, a view of which Sir Philip commissioned him to paint; this view was afterwards engraved by the eminent English engraver, Thomas Major. This acquaintance also resolved itself into friendship, and, on the advice of his friend, in 1760 Gainsborough removed to Bath where Thicknesse was influential, and knew that there was a promising opening for a skillful portrait-painter. Here he won the esteem of the [end of page 4]