Thomas Gainsborough - Portrait of William Anne Hollis Presenting a Cupto Thomas Clutterbuck [c.1784-85]

Thomas Gainsborough - Portrait of William Anne Hollis Presenting a Cup to Thomas Clutterbuck [c.1784-85], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Thomas Gainsborough painted the fourth Earl of Essex presenting a silver cup to Thomas Clutterbuck, a member of a prominent local family and also sheriff of the English county of Hertfordshire. In 1784 the Earl of Essex commissioned the painting by Gainsborough to commemorate the presentation of the cup, which had actually taken place twelve years earlier. He then gave the painting to Clutterbuck. The two families maintained close ties throughout the nineteenth century, and the silver cup is still in the Clutterbuck family's possession. The painting, although it was paid for by the earl, also remained with the family until the Getty Museum purchased it in 1972. 

[Getty Centre, Los Angeles - Oil on canvas, 58.5 x 68.5 inches]

Thomas Gainsborough - Mr and Mrs William Hallett (The Morning Walk) [1785]

Thomas Gainsborough - Mr and Mrs William Hallett (The Morning Walk) [1785], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Morning Walk by Thomas Gainsborough shows an elegant young couple strolling through a woodland landscape, an attentive dog at the lady's heel. William Hallett and Elizabeth Stephen were both aged 21 and due to be married in the summer of 1785, shortly after the painting was completed. Portraits of wealthy sitters posed in a natural setting and dressed in their finest (but not necessarily most practical) clothes were a popular status symbol. 

William is in a black, silk velvet frock-suit. His apparent carelessness is actually a studied pose. The undone jacket and with one hand tucked into it is a stance seen in many fashionable 18th-centry informal portraits (known as conversation pieces). Elizabeth is in a dress of ivory silk (perhaps her wedding dress) caught at the waist with a black silk band. A frilled muslin kerchief covers her breast, with a knot of grape-green ribbon under it.

The light, feathery brushstrokes used to describe the landscape are typical of Gainsborough's late style. William's hair and Elizabeth's gauzy shawl almost blend into the landscape they walk through.

[Oil on canvas, 236.2 x 179.1 cm]

Thomas Gainsborough - Mr and Mrs Andrews [c.1750]

Thomas Gainsborough - Mr and Mrs Andrews [c.1750], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This portrait is the masterpiece of Gainsborough's early years. It was painted after his return home from London to Suffolk in 1748, soon after the marriage of Robert Andrews of the Auberies and Frances Carter of Ballingdon House, near Sudbury, in November of that year. The landscape evokes Robert Andrews's estate, to which his marriage added property. He has a gun under his arm, while his wife sits on an elaborate Rococo-style wooden bench. The painting of Mrs Andrews's lap is unfinished. The space may have been reserved for a child for Mrs Andrews to hold.

The painting follows the fashionable convention of the conversation piece, a (usually) small-scale portrait showing two or more people, often out of doors. The emphasis on the landscape here allows Gainsborough to display his skills as a painter of convincingly changing weather and naturalistic scenery, still a novelty at this time.

[Oil on canvas, 69.8 x 119.4 cm]