The World of Gainsborough, 1727-1788

Within is a competent assured brief history if not too exciting one of the English painter Gainsborough and copies of his paintings. Strength and interest is gained by including the paintings and illustrations with commentaries about them of Hogarth and Reynold. One is given a nice picture of an age when English painting gained its spot on the world's stage.

(page 34 with painting opposite) “Much as Hogarth railed against classicized settings that had been used by Continental portraitists like Van Dyck, he himself placed the philanthropic Captain Coram before a huge marble pillar, with a conventional back round of draperies. The remainder of the portrait, however, is all Hogarth: the captain sits in his English scarlet coat, his ships show more in the distance, the globe at his feet. His solid features, firm mouth, broad brow and compassionate eyes reveal the purposeful, high-minded man whom Hogarth and his contemporaries held in high esteem.
Other Hogarth portraits reflect this same preoccupation with middle-class virtues.”

(page 57 with picture on opposite page) “while he was establishing his reputation as a first-class portraitist at Bath, Gainsborough painted his best known work, The Blue Boy, the most popular picture in English art.”

(page 124) “Far from abandoning portraits, Gainsborough actually produced more than 700 of them---'To make the pot boil' was his explanation. But for all his cynicism about portraiture, he worked tremendously hard at the art, sometimes taking more than a year on a canvas, This was hardly pot boiling.”

(page 171) “Reynolds' advice to art students not to follow Gainsborough was sound; Gainsborough was much too original and individual to serve as a model. In portraiture, at least, most of Britain's young painters would pursue the tradition established b Reynolds. In landscape painting, however, and in his sympathetic portrayal of the common people, Gainsborough's influence was great.” show less

more a history of art in his time. many detailed descriptions of paintings not shown. needs an editor