Gainsborough, Thomas

English landscape and portrait painter. In 1760 he settled in Bath, where his elegant and subtly characterized society portraits brought great success. In 1774 he went to London, becoming one of the original members of the Royal Academy and the principal rival of Joshua Reynolds. He was one of the first British artists to follow the Dutch example in painting realistic landscapes rather than imaginative Italianate scenery, as in Mr and Mrs Andrews (about 1750; National Gallery, London).

Although he learned painting and etching in London, Gainsborough was largely self-taught. His method of painting – what Reynolds called ‘those odd scratches and marks ... this chaos which by a kind of magic at a certain distance assumes form’ – is full of temperament and life. The portrait of his wife (Courtauld Institute, London) and The Morning Walk (National Gallery) show his sense of character and the elegance of his mature work.

A constant tendency to experiment produced the remarkable ‘fancy pictures’ or imaginative compositions of his late years, Diana and Actaeon (Royal Collection), unfinished when he died, being an example. Hundreds of drawings, often in a mixture of media, show his continued pursuit of landscape for its own sake.