Thomas Gainsborough - Sudbury, Suffolk
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SMacB
N 52° 02.314 E 000° 43.849
31U E 344363 N 5767758
Memorial in honour of Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 1788), one of the most famous painters of the eighteenth century. Sudbury was Gainsborough's town of birth. The Bronze figure was made by the Australian sculptor Sir Bertram Mackennal in 1913.
Waymark Code: WMME5D
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/07/2014
Views: 1
"MARKET HILL 1. l692 (North Side) Statue of Thomas Gainsborough TL 874l 3/99 3.3.52. II GV 2. Opposite west end of St Peter's Church. By Sir Bertram Mackennal 1913. Figure in bronze, standing on stone pedestal, holding palette and brush. No inscription but simply name and date 1727-1788."
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"Gainsborough was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver in Suffolk. One of his brothers, John was known as Scheming Jack because of his passion for designing curiosities, another Humphrey, had a faculty for mechanics and was said to have invented the method of condensing steam in a separate vessel, which was of great service to James Watt. Gainsborough left home in 1740 to study art in London with Hubert Gravelot, Francis Hayman, and William Hogarth. In 1746, he married Margaret Burr, and they became parents of two daughters. He moved to Bath in 1759 where fashionable society patronised him, and he began exhibiting in London. In 1769, he became a founding member of the Royal Academy, but his relationship with the organization was thorny and he sometimes withdrew his work from exhibition. Gainsborough moved to London in 1774, and painted portraits of the king and queen, but the king was obliged to name as royal painter Gainsborough's rival Joshua Reynolds. In his last years, Gainsborough painted relatively simple landscapes and is credited (with Richard Wilson) as the originator of the 18th century British landscape school. Gainsborough died of cancer in 1788 and was buried at St. Anne's Church, Kew. He painted quickly, and his later pictures are characterised by a light palette and easy strokes. He preferred landscapes to portraits. William Jackson in his contemporary essays said of him 'to his intimate friends he was sincere honest and his heart was always alive to every feeling of honour and generosity but avoided the company of literary men, who were his aversion, but for a letter to an intimate friend he had few equals and no superior' "
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