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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'.

More on Gainsborough: Gainsborough's Family Album | Explore the portrait of Thomas Gainsborough by E. Ortner (NPG D2917) from all angles

Watch a film clip on the artist from the BBC Archive in the Media section below

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James West

by Thomas Hodgetts, after a painting attributed to Thomas Gainsborough
mezzotint, published 1819
NPG D8227

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John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll

by Robert Bowyer Parkes, published by Henry Graves, after Thomas Gainsborough
mezzotint, published 1877
NPG D15047

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