Thomas Gainsborough

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews is an oil painting of 1750 by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough in the National Gallery, London. Today it is one of his most famous works. Thomas Gainsborough was twenty-one when he painted Mr. and Mrs. Andrews. His apprenticeship was with the French rococo style. There, he picked up a love of landscapes. However, landscape painting was far less prestigious and poorly paid compared to portraits and Gainsborough was forced (since the family business, a clothiers', had been bankrupted in 1733) to "face paint" as he put it. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews contains the widest landscape of Gainsborough's portraits, and he would not return to such compositions. Future paintings would be set against neutral or typical rococo settings. It has been speculated that Gainsborough wished to show off his landscape ability to potential clients, to satisfy his personal preference, or his sitters' wishes.

Robert Andrews, the male sitter, was a member of the landed gentry, and this is very much apparent in Gainsborough's work. Although it is probable the family money came from being a landlord, Robert's father also lent substantial amounts of money, particularly to other gentry, at significant interest rates. This included the sum of £30,000 to Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1743. He owned ships and engaged in trade with the colonies of the British Empire. Robert himself was born in 1726, and went to Oxford University. His father purchased him an estate, and secured a bride, in a successful attempt to integrate Robert into the upper classes. In 1763, after his father's death, he would take over the family business. He had eight children. The woman sitting beside him is Frances Mary Carter, who was betrothed to Andrews at 15 or 16 years old, he was 22, she 16. Like many marriages of the time, there was more than an element of a business deal about the whole endeavour; the estate where the painting was created, bordered her father's estate and was probably part of her dowry. Her family had made their money in the drapery business, and by buying the estate avoided the collapse of the textile industry.

Self portrait Perhaps you have seen this one before? What’s it called?

King George III - His life and reign, which were longer than those of any previous British monarch, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of its American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. He played a minor role in the wars against Napoleon, which concluded in France’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III suffered from recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Medical practitioners were baffled by this at the time, although it has since been suggested that he suffered from a blood disease. He is most remembered as "The Mad King" and "The King Who Lost America". In 1780, Gainsborough painted the portraits of King George III and his queen and afterwards received many royal commissions. This gave him some influence with the Academy of Art and allowed him to dictate the manner in which he wished his work to be exhibited. In 1784, the royal painter died and the King was obliged to give the job to Gainsborough's rival and Academy president, Joshua Reynolds. Gainsborough remained the Royal Family's favorite painter, however. At his own express wish, he was buried at St. Anne's Church, where the Family regularly worshipped.

Duchess of Beaufort. 1770 Is she old, is she young?

Haymaker and the Sleeping Girl 1785, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Yeah she looks real comfortable. Who falls asleep like that against a fence? And why didn’t the dog bark of an intruder?

Joshua Reynolds The Countess Spence with her daughter Georgina

Reynolds was born as one of ten (maybe eleven) children and the son of the village school-master, Reynolds was restricted to a formal education provided by his father. He exhibited a natural curiosity as a boy, Showing an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to a fashionable portrait painter with whom he remained until 1743. In 1749, Reynolds became friend with a naval officer, and they both sailed to the Mediterranean. From 1749 to 1752, he spent over two years in Italy, where he studied the Old Masters and acquired a taste for the "Grand Style". Unfortunately, while in Rome, Reynolds suffered a severe cold which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. From 1753 until the end of his life, he lived in London, his talents gaining recognition.

Because of his popularity as a portrait painter, Reynolds enjoyed constant interaction with the wealthy and famous men and women of the day With his rival Thomas Gainsborough, Reynolds was the dominant English portraitist of the time. It is said that in his long life he painted as many as three thousand portraits. On 10 August 1784 Allan Ramsay died and the office of Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King therefore became vacant. Gainsborough felt that he had a good chance of securing it but Reynolds felt that he deserved it and threatened to resign the presidency of the Royal Academy if he did not receive it. However this did not make Reynolds happy, as he wrote "If I had known what a shabby miserable place it is, I would not have asked for it”.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was an influential 18th-century English painter, specializing in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the subject. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. King George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769. In 1788 Reynolds painted the portrait of Lord Heathfield, who became a national hero for his successful defense of Gibraltar during its Great Siege from 1779 to 1783 against the combined forces of France and Spain. Heathfield is depicted against a background of clouds and cannon smoke, wearing the uniform of the 15th Light Dragoons and clasping the key of the Rock, its chain wrapped twice around his right hand.

Gilbert Stuart American artist, painted this portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1783 We will look at Stuart’s work later, as he painted Paul Revere and other famous Americans.

John Singleton Copley Portrait Of Copley by Gilbert Stuart

John Singleton Copley (17381 – 1815) was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts, and a son of Irish parents. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects. His paintings were innovative in their tendency to depict artifacts relating to these individuals' lives.

Watson and the Shark Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Its subject based on an incident related to the artist by Brook Watson, who had been attacked by a shark while swimming in Havana harbor as a 14-year-old boy. It is likely that Watson, who went on to a successful career despite the attack and the loss of his leg below the knee, commissioned the painting as a lesson for other unfortunates, including orphans like himself, in the fact that even the severest adversity can be overcome.

Harvard University gallery Portraits of John Adams

During his curtailed tour of England in the fall and winter of 1783, John Adams had fellow American and friend John Singleton Copley paint this grand portrait representing Adams as a dignified diplomat. Though Copley moved to England from Boston in 1774, followed by his wife and young children a year later, he was not a loyalist. His portrait of Adams celebrates the signing of the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain. When Abigail Adams arrived in London, she saw the portrait prior to meeting her husband. “I went yesterday to Mr. Copley’s to see Mr. Adam’s picture. This I am told was taken at the request of Mr. Copley and belongs to him. It is a full length picture very large; and very good likeness. Before him stands the globe: in his hand a map of Europe, at a small distance 2 female figures representing Peace and Innocence. It is a most beautiful painting”

Abigail Adams, perhaps focusing more on the image of her husband, whom she had not seen for four years, than on the details in the painting, inaccurately described the portrait and its commission. John Adams paid Copley 100 guineas for the portrait. He is depicted holding a scroll, presumably the treaty with Britain, and a map of America lays on a table. A single figure is in the background. John Adams instructed his son, sent to meet Abigail in London: “Desire Mr. Copley to get a Frame made for my Picture and do you give him the Money. He will tell you how much and give you a Receipt. The Frame should be made, to take to Pieces, so that it may be removed to the Hague or to Boston, in time. Thus this Piece of Vanity will be finished. May it be the last” Copley retained the portrait for over twenty years, ostensibly for engraving. Two engravers worked from the painting itself, In 1796, Copley exhibited the portrait at the Royal Academy. John Quincy Adams had the painting shipped from England in 1817, two years after Copley's death. A cousin kept it carefully for many years, in part because there was no suitable place in the Adams home in Quincy. With the family's agreement, he left it to Harvard College in his will.

Rococo is an ornate style originating in France in the 18th century and evolving from the Baroque style ("Baroque gone mad," some would quip). Rococo is applied to the Louis XV period in France (1715-1774). The word is derived from "rocaille" (pebble), but the term referred especially to the small stones and shells used to decorate the interiors of grottoes. Such shells or shell forms were the principal motifs in Rococo ornament.