Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough  was an English portrait and landscape painter. He was born on 14 May 1727 in Sudbury. His father, John Gainsborough, was a weaver in Suffolk. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills. So he let him go to London to study art in 1740. In London he first trained under engraver Hubert Gravelot. But eventually became associated with William Hogarth and his school.

In 1746, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr. She was illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. Soon the couple became the parents of two daughters.The artist's work, then mainly composed of landscape paintings, was not selling very well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748–1749. He concentrated on the painting of portraits.

He moved to Bath in 1759 where fashionable society patronised him, and he began exhibiting in London. In 1769, he became a founding member of the Royal Academy. But his relationship with the organization was thorny and he sometimes withdrew his work from exhibition. Gainsborough moved to London in 1774, and painted portraits of the King and Queen. In 1777, he again began to exhibit his paintings at the Royal Academy. There were many portraits of contemporary celebrities, such as the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland. Exhibitions of his work continued for the next six years.

Gainsborough was noted for the speed with which he applied his paint. He painted quickly and his later pictures are characterized by a light palette and easy strokes. His most famous works are Portrait of Mrs. Graham; Mary and Margaret: The Painter's Daughters and Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher.

He died on 2 August 1788 at the age of 61. He was interred at St. Anne's Church, in Surrey.