The Painter's Two Daughters

1750s

Portraits pay the bills: the example of Hogarth

Gainsborough's main income comes from portraits; in this genre he tries to follow Hogarth, caring more about likeness than about conveying the sitter's social standing. Around 1753, probably, he receives a flattering commission for a portrait of Admiral Vernon, and he paints many members of his own family — for example a self-portrait of 1754 in a tricorn hat.

c. 1752 – 1759

The Ipswich Music Club

In Ipswich Gainsborough becomes a member of the Music Club, where he meets fellow music lovers and professional musicians; later he will paint portraits of some of them, and a group portrait of the club's members.

December 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.

1760s

“Sick of portraits”

In a letter to a friend Gainsborough confesses that he is sick of portraits and longs to take his viola da gamba and walk off to some quiet village to paint landscapes. He has little regard for his gentleman patrons, whose only part worth looking at, he says, is their purse; by now he owns five viols — three by Henry Jaye and two by Barak Norman.