D'Anvers, N.: Thomas Gainsborough R. A. (London: George Bell & Sons, 1902)

AT BATH 7
brities who flocked to the favourite health resort
to drink the waters and idle life away.
AT BATH
No sooner were the Gainsboroughs settled
in their new home, which was in the recently
completed Circus at Bath, than patrons began
to pour in. The landscapes which had not been
given away before he left Ipswich the artist now
hung in his studio and the passage leading to it,
but none of his visitors took any special notice
of them. The day of appreciation of studies of
natural scenery had not yet dawned, and it was
only by painting portraits that a living could be
made out of art. The painter soon found
himself in a position to raise his price from eight
to forty guineas for a head, whilst for a full-
length portrait he now charged one hundred
guineas. At first it was a disappointment to him
to have to put aside his landscape work entirely,
for until he came to Bath he had been a land-
scape-painter by choice and a portrait-painter
by necessity. Now, however, a great change came
over his view of the matter, the result, it is said,
of his having become acquainted with the work
of Van Dyck, several of whose masterpieces were
in private possession in the neighbourhood of