Thomas Gainsborough worked at a period when the terms of art itself were being renegotiated.
The record lists Thomas Gainsborough as English portrait and landscape painter (1727-1788).
Thomas Gainsborough was born at Sudbury in 1727. His recorded nationality is United Kingdom. He trained at Sudbury Grammar School.
Academies set the rules in this period - what counted as a serious subject, and who was allowed to train.
He worked as painter, draftsperson and portraitist.
His recorded movement is rococo and english painting.
Among his best-known works are Sir George Chad, Baronet of Thursford, Sarah Rowlls Chad and Mr and Mrs Andrews. An artist's reputation moves with taste, but the work stays exactly where it was left.
That the work was made in United Kingdom shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
Thomas Gainsborough died in 1788, aged 61. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Notable work: Sir George Chad, Baronet of Thursford
- Notable work: Sarah Rowlls Chad
- Notable work: Mr and Mrs Andrews
- Movement: Rococo and English painting
