Landscape with Gipsies

1748

His father dies; back to Sudbury

Gainsborough's father, John, dies in 1748. With no new commissions coming in London, the painter returns to Sudbury, to the house of his childhood.

1752

The move to Ipswich

In 1752 Gainsborough, his wife and their two daughters, Mary (“Molly”) and Margaret (“Peggy”), move to Ipswich. Portrait commissions increase, but his clients are mostly local merchants and squires, and he has to borrow against his wife's annuity of £200, which the Duke of Beaufort had settled on her.

1758

A commission for portraits of the Earl of Jersey and his son

In December 1758 Gainsborough receives a commission for portraits of the Earl of Jersey and his son Lord Villiers. The portraits meet with approval and the painter's fame grows.

1759

The move to fashionable Bath

Having made his name as a portraitist in Ipswich, Gainsborough decides to move to the fashionable spa town of Bath, where two of his sisters live. There are so many portrait commissions there that they outstrip what he can handle.

1759–1774

Bath: Van Dyck and Rubens in the houses of the local aristocracy

Of great importance to Gainsborough is his acquaintance with paintings by Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens owned by local aristocrats; he copies some of them. The study of the old masters is linked to the appearance in his landscapes of luminous distances that he had not been able to achieve before.

1761

The Society of Artists exhibitions

From the exhibition of 1761 Gainsborough sends work to the annual exhibitions of the Society of Artists of Great Britain at Spring Gardens in London, of which he was one of the earliest members.