The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)

The letters reveal a man who was generous and warm-hearted, devoted to his family and friends, convivial, often dissipated yet modest and God-fearing, usually sensible in his own affairs and always so in the advice he gave to others. We also learn a great deal about Gainsboroughs painting: his methods and techniques, his attitude toward portraiture and landscape, his relationships with his patrons, the prices he charged, his concern about how his pictures were hung, and his ambivalence about the value of the Royal Academy exhibitions. Running through the letters, too, is his love of music and his friendship with musicians. The 110 letters, which include correspondence with Gainsboroughs friends and relatives, are supplemented by thirty-six documents in the artists own hand, chiefly instructions to his bankers and receipts for payments from clients. Illustrations are included of all the people to whom Gainsborough wrote whose portraits exist and of friends and works of art described in the letters. More than 300 notes identify these people and help to explain the text.

Author: Hayes, John

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 240

Publisher: Yale University Press

Publication Date: 2016-02-16