DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61291#0020
8
GAINSBOROUGH
Bath. A new light seems to have broken upon
the path of the young Suffolk artist: he no
longer grudged the time necessary to study the
character of those who sat to him; he had, so
to speak, received the accollade as a portrait-
painter ; and there was a marked change in his
style of work, so marked, indeed, that some
experts claim to be able to recognize at once the
difference between a likeness painted before and
after the first introduction to the Flemish master.
The arrival of the Gainsboroughs at Bath
coincided with the first exhibition of the Royal
Society of Artists, to which Gainsborough was
invited to contribute by his old friend Joshua
Kirby, who was on the committee. Rather un-
graciously the portrait-painter took no notice
of the request, and it was not until the third
exhibition that he sent a specimen of his work.
This was a full-length portrait of Mr. Nugent,
afterwards Lord Clare, and Gainsborough thus
for the first time came into contrast with
his great contemporary and rival Sir Joshua
Reynolds, who from first to last showed a most
generous appreciation of the Suffolk master’s
work, in spite of the coldness, almost amount-
ing to hostility, with which his advances were
met. It was, never in fact, amongst his fellow-
GAINSBOROUGH
Bath. A new light seems to have broken upon
the path of the young Suffolk artist: he no
longer grudged the time necessary to study the
character of those who sat to him; he had, so
to speak, received the accollade as a portrait-
painter ; and there was a marked change in his
style of work, so marked, indeed, that some
experts claim to be able to recognize at once the
difference between a likeness painted before and
after the first introduction to the Flemish master.
The arrival of the Gainsboroughs at Bath
coincided with the first exhibition of the Royal
Society of Artists, to which Gainsborough was
invited to contribute by his old friend Joshua
Kirby, who was on the committee. Rather un-
graciously the portrait-painter took no notice
of the request, and it was not until the third
exhibition that he sent a specimen of his work.
This was a full-length portrait of Mr. Nugent,
afterwards Lord Clare, and Gainsborough thus
for the first time came into contrast with
his great contemporary and rival Sir Joshua
Reynolds, who from first to last showed a most
generous appreciation of the Suffolk master’s
work, in spite of the coldness, almost amount-
ing to hostility, with which his advances were
met. It was, never in fact, amongst his fellow-