DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0407
ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 381
From Mr. Nesbitt the Blue Boy came into possession of John Hopp-
ner, the artist, who sold it to Earl Grosvenor. Then, of course, The
Blue Boy passed as an heirloom to his successor, the Duke of West-
minster. For many years The Blue Boy hung in Grosvenor House,
London, in the same room with Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Mrs. Siddons
as the Tragic Muse, the two most famous portraits of the two most
famous English painters. And it is one of the romances of art that
these two portraits should have crossed the Atlantic and to be again
united, as it were, this time in a California mansion.
Gainsborough had doubtless some reason for painting this portrait;
but it is not the reason usually given,—namely that it was done in
refutation of a theory expressed by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1778.
Apart from the reasons now accepted to disprove this theory, the
picture is too joyously painted for a controversial and academic tour
de force.
One of Gainsborough’s latest biographers, Mr. William T. Whitley,*
discovered the following in a number of The European Magazine
(August 1798), which would seem to give the real reason for the genesis
of Gainsborough’s famous portrait:
Mr. Gainsborough
“One of the finest pictures this great artist ever painted, and which
might be put upon a par with any portrait that ever was executed, is
that of a boy in a blue Vandyke dress, which is now in the possession
of a tradesman in Greek Street. Gainsborough had seen a portrait
of a boy by Titian for the first time, and, having found a model that
pleased him, he set to work with all the enthusiasm of his genius. ‘I
am proud,’ he said, ‘of being of the same profession with Titian, and
was resolved to attempt something like him.’ ”
So much has been written about this portrait and the copies that
have been made of it that great confusion has resulted, and the con-
stant repetition of the same story by writers has tended to obscure
rather than to clarify the subject. However, the theory now accepted
is that the portrait of The Blue Boy first appeared in public at the
Thomas Gainsborough (London, 1915).
From Mr. Nesbitt the Blue Boy came into possession of John Hopp-
ner, the artist, who sold it to Earl Grosvenor. Then, of course, The
Blue Boy passed as an heirloom to his successor, the Duke of West-
minster. For many years The Blue Boy hung in Grosvenor House,
London, in the same room with Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Mrs. Siddons
as the Tragic Muse, the two most famous portraits of the two most
famous English painters. And it is one of the romances of art that
these two portraits should have crossed the Atlantic and to be again
united, as it were, this time in a California mansion.
Gainsborough had doubtless some reason for painting this portrait;
but it is not the reason usually given,—namely that it was done in
refutation of a theory expressed by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1778.
Apart from the reasons now accepted to disprove this theory, the
picture is too joyously painted for a controversial and academic tour
de force.
One of Gainsborough’s latest biographers, Mr. William T. Whitley,*
discovered the following in a number of The European Magazine
(August 1798), which would seem to give the real reason for the genesis
of Gainsborough’s famous portrait:
Mr. Gainsborough
“One of the finest pictures this great artist ever painted, and which
might be put upon a par with any portrait that ever was executed, is
that of a boy in a blue Vandyke dress, which is now in the possession
of a tradesman in Greek Street. Gainsborough had seen a portrait
of a boy by Titian for the first time, and, having found a model that
pleased him, he set to work with all the enthusiasm of his genius. ‘I
am proud,’ he said, ‘of being of the same profession with Titian, and
was resolved to attempt something like him.’ ”
So much has been written about this portrait and the copies that
have been made of it that great confusion has resulted, and the con-
stant repetition of the same story by writers has tended to obscure
rather than to clarify the subject. However, the theory now accepted
is that the portrait of The Blue Boy first appeared in public at the
Thomas Gainsborough (London, 1915).