Historical Figures Codexery

Thomas Gainsborough

English portrait and landscape painter, founding member of the Royal Academy

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough · via Wikipedia: Thomas Gainsborough · Public domain

Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woollen goods.[1] Between 1752 and 1759 Gainsborough established himself as a portrait painter of friends and wealthy patrons at a time when the county town was a flourishing port.[2] The house where Gainsborough grew up, located on Gainsborough Street in Sudbury, is now called Gainsborough's House.[3] In 1759, Gainsborough relocated his household to Bath, taking up residence at 17 The Circus.[4]

During the 1760s, Gainsborough wrote to a friend expressing his weariness with portrait work and his desire to escape to a village where he could paint landscapes and enjoy a quiet life.[5] In 1774, Gainsborough and his household moved to Schomberg House on Pall Mall in London.[6]

Quick Facts

Baptised
14 May 1727
Birthplace
Sudbury, Suffolk, England
Died
2 August 1788
Place of death
London, England
Training
Hubert-François Gravelot, Francis Hayman
Movement
Rococo
Spouse
Margaret Burr (1746)
Children
2, including Mary

Facts from the source article.

What the cited sources add

A BBC Suffolk article notes that Gainsborough's father is described as a weaver and the family were one of the most important in the surrounding area.[2] The same source states that Gainsborough's landscapes are thought to have been a big influence on Suffolk's John Constable.[2] The Richmond Guardian reports that Gainsborough's tomb was last restored in 1924 and was again in need of conservation work in 2011.[7] Minerva Conservation notes that the initial simple gravestone was later replaced with the present larger monument.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Thomas Gainsborough" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Thomas Gainsborough", National Gallery of Art; Fulcher, George William, Life of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1856 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "The boy is back in town", BBC Suffolk. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  3. Wikipedia, "Thomas Gainsborough" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The dictionary of art (volume 11 Ferrara-Gainsborough)", Grove, 1996, p. 907 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Thomas Gainsborough" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Greenwood, "Famous houses of the West Country", Kingsmead Press, 1977, p. 84–86 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Thomas Gainsborough" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Letter to William Jackson, from Bath, dated 4 June (but without the year), in M. Woodall (ed.), The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough (London, 1961), p. 115. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Thomas Gainsborough" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Thomas Gainsborough", National Gallery of Art; ; "Thomas Gainsborough Blue Plaque", openplaques.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "Restoration of Thomas Gainsborough's tomb", Richmond Guardian, 7 March 2011. facts only, no text reused. yourlocalguardian.co.uk
  8. "The Restoration of the Tomb of Sir Thomas Gainsborough", Minerva Conservation, 2016. facts only, no text reused. minervaconservation.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Thomas Gainsborough (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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