Scholars and enthusiasts alike will revel in this ambitious two-volume catalogue raisonné of Thomas Gainsborough’s portraits and copies of Old Master works. The catalogue contains approximately 1,100 paintings, including nearly 200 works newly attributed to the British master, as well as updated information about his subjects and specially commissioned photography. Each portrait entry includes the biography of the sitter—including several newly identified—the painting’s provenance, and exhibitions in which each work was shown. Gainsborough’s copies after Old Masters, painted in admiration and used to assimilate their style of painting into his own work, are documented here as well. Research includes in-depth analysis of newspaper archives and other printed material to establish the date of a painting’s production, chart the development of the artist’s style, and assess the impression the work made within the context of its time.

Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters (The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)

Arts & Photography

BELSEY, Hugh

History & Criticism

Paul Mellon Centre

Based on new research this fascinating book draws together a group of works from public and private collections to examine, for the first time, the relationship that Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88) had with the theatrical world and the most celebrated stage artists of his day, such as James Quinn, David Garrick and Sarah Siddons. Gainsborough painted notable portraits of these and twenty others, including dramatists, dancers and composers. This publication firmly establishes the artist's place within the theatrical worlds of Bath and London and will show why the art of ballet, and in particular Gainsborough's sitters, rose to prominence in 1780 and examines parallels between Gainsborough's much admired painterly naturalism and the theatrical naturalism of Garrick and Siddons with whom he had personal friendships.

Gainsborough and the Theatre

Sloman, Susan

Philip Wilson Publishers

This book explores the National Gallery of Scotland's world famous portrait The Honourable Mrs Graham by Thomas Gainsborough, one of the finest and most sensitive British portrait painters of the eighteenth century. An exquisite society beauty, Mary Graham (1757-1792) sat for Gainsborough for at least three portraits. Following her tragically early death from tuberculosis, her husband, later Lord Lynedoch, was so grief-stricken that he had the portrait stored in a London warehouse. It was not until after his death, more than forty years later, that an heir rediscovered the painting and bequeathed it to the Scottish nation on condition that it never leave Edinburgh. Gainsborough's Beautiful Mrs Graham comprehensively explores the personal, social and historical context of the painting and the family who owned it and goes on to examine the afterlife of a picture whose popularity has generated a whole industry of souvenir production.

Gainsborough's Beautiful Mrs. Graham

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

National Galleries Of Scotland

Gainsborough at Gainsborough's House

Paul Holberton

For some the greatest of all English artists, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was born in the small town of Sudbury on the river Stour in Suffolk in East Anglia. In his house in Sudbury, mainly during the last twenty years under the curatorship of Hugh Belsey, the Gainsborough's House Society has built up an outstanding collection of paintings, drawings, prints, books and memorabilia relating to the artist and his time. This book presents both the highlights of this collection, which has not hitherto been published, and significant new research and insights relating to Gainsborough's art, character and career.

Paul Holberton Pub

This new study on Thomas Gainsborough concentrates on the early life and works of the great eighteenth-century artist. Gainsborough’s talent was evident at a young age, and before he established himself as one of London’s leading portrait artists he was able to indulge himself in his true passion, landscapes, as well as providing portraits for a provincial clientele. 
Graced with the light and gentle shadows of the English countryside, these early works provided the foundation for much of Gainsborough’s later work. But many of them, including the renowned Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, and His Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, can be called masterpieces in their own right. It was in Suffolk that the artist developed a naturalistic approach to portraiture by abandoning "conversation pieces" and painting instead a number of straightforward head-and-shoulder portraits. This lively and accessible volume features eighty color and black-and-white reproductions of Gainsborough’s paintings, etchings, and drawings. They not only shed light on the development of one of England’s most revered painters, but also offer an intimate look at the work of a young painter in the thrall of his subjects, and just beginning to realize his full talents.

Thomas Gainsborough: A Country Life

Gainsborough, Thomas

Individual Artists

Prestel Pub

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