DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61291#0014
2
GAINSBOROUGH
by presenting to the master of his school a
forged letter purporting to have come from his
father.
Gainsborough’s earliest open-air studies were
drawings of trees made in an old orchard behind
the Black Horse Inn, which is still in existence,
and there his first attempt at portraiture was
produced under rather amusing circumstances.
As he was making a sketch of a pear-tree a
man’s head suddenly appeared amongst the
foliage and the boy rapidly added it to his pic-
ture. The owner of the head had come to steal
the pears; but when he saw the artist he ran
away, hoping to elude detection. Thomas, how-
ever, showed the portrait to his father, who at
once recognized not only the features of the
man, but the talent of the boy who could pro-
duce so good a likeness with a few strokes of
his pencil. Another account of the incident
says it was not in his father’s orchard, but in
that belonging to the Rev. Mr. Coyle of Sudbury,
that the famous sketch, still known as Tom
Peartree, was made. A supposed enlarged
replica, painted on a piece of wood cut to the
shape of a man, is in the possession of Mr. Jackson,
and was lent by him to the 1885 Exhibition of
Gainsborough’s works at the Grosvenor Gallery.
GAINSBOROUGH
by presenting to the master of his school a
forged letter purporting to have come from his
father.
Gainsborough’s earliest open-air studies were
drawings of trees made in an old orchard behind
the Black Horse Inn, which is still in existence,
and there his first attempt at portraiture was
produced under rather amusing circumstances.
As he was making a sketch of a pear-tree a
man’s head suddenly appeared amongst the
foliage and the boy rapidly added it to his pic-
ture. The owner of the head had come to steal
the pears; but when he saw the artist he ran
away, hoping to elude detection. Thomas, how-
ever, showed the portrait to his father, who at
once recognized not only the features of the
man, but the talent of the boy who could pro-
duce so good a likeness with a few strokes of
his pencil. Another account of the incident
says it was not in his father’s orchard, but in
that belonging to the Rev. Mr. Coyle of Sudbury,
that the famous sketch, still known as Tom
Peartree, was made. A supposed enlarged
replica, painted on a piece of wood cut to the
shape of a man, is in the possession of Mr. Jackson,
and was lent by him to the 1885 Exhibition of
Gainsborough’s works at the Grosvenor Gallery.