Gainsborough: A Portrait - James Hamilton

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) is the quintessential painter of the 18th century, an era that is so richly reflected in the novels of Jane Austen, the music of Handel, and the elegance of Bath and Georgian London. Gainsborough defined an age in his portraits, while in his landscape paintings he evoked the first critical reverberations of the impending social change from Britain's rural to an industrial economy. While Gainsborough's work has been displayed fruitfully in exhibitions and in country house collections, there is no modern full-length biography. The circumstances of his life have only been seriously addressed where they touch on the interpretation of his work by art historians. James Hamilton's vibrant biography sets the artist in his period and society, and reveals how he emerged out of a Suffolk background, expressed his genius against the society of Ipswich, Bath and London, and melted into the urban landscape of London where, aged sixty-one, he died. Gainsborough is an engaging figure by any measure, and his importance in the history of art and music makes an extended study of his life essential reading. This book chronicles Gainsborough's ambivalent and eventually…

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