| | [[Image:Gainsborough Lady Georgiana Cavendish pd.jpg|thumb|Lady Georgiana Cavendish, 1787.]] | | [[Image:Gainsborough Lady Georgiana Cavendish pd.jpg|thumb|Lady Georgiana Cavendish, 1787.]] |
| | [[Thomas Gainsborough]] (Sudbury, Suffolk, 1727 – London, 1788) was a landscape and portrait painter, considered one of the great English masters. In the aristocratic spa town of Bath and later in London, he became well-known for [[portraits]] like ''Mrs. Philip Thicknesse (1760), Mary, Countess Howe (about 1763-4), The Blue Boy (exhibited R.A. 1770), and the landscape The Harvest Wagon (exhibited S.A. 1767). In 1768 he became one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy, at which he exhibited annually until 1784''. <ref>[http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gainsborough/gainsboroughbio.html Biography of Thomas Gainsborough] </ref> | | [[Thomas Gainsborough]] (Sudbury, Suffolk, 1727 – London, 1788) was a landscape and portrait painter, considered one of the great English masters. In the aristocratic spa town of Bath and later in London, he became well-known for [[portraits]] like ''Mrs. Philip Thicknesse (1760), Mary, Countess Howe (about 1763-4), The Blue Boy (exhibited R.A. 1770), and the landscape The Harvest Wagon (exhibited S.A. 1767). In 1768 he became one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy, at which he exhibited annually until 1784''. <ref>[http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gainsborough/gainsboroughbio.html Biography of Thomas Gainsborough] </ref> |
| | + | In 1780, Gainsborough painted the King George III and Queen Charlotte, becoming the Royal Family's favorite painter. ''Before his death in 1788, he turned from portraiture to pictorial compositions, producing in all some 200 landscapes in addition to his prolific output of about 800 portraits of the English aristocracy.'' <ref>[http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/gainsborough.htm Thomas Gainsborough]</ref> |