Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Portrait and landscape painter

Sitter in 8 portraits
Artist associated with 262 portraits
Landscape and portrait painter. Gainsborough worked in his native Sudbury and then Ipswich until 1759 when he moved to Bath and established a fashionable portrait practice. Settling in London in 1774, he was Joshua Reynolds's only real rival as a portrait painter. Gainsborough quarrelled with the Royal Academy over the exhibition of his pictures; he was highly-strung in personality, a lively letter writer and devoted to music; Garrick said 'his cranium is so crammed with genius of every kind that it is in danger of bursting on you like a steam engine overcharged'.