Thicknesse, Philip: A Sketch Of The Life And Paintings Of Thomas Gainsborough, Esq. ([London], 1788)

( 5 )

m any other, posseUed a genius so greafe,
or so universal as .• r. Gainsborough, for
whether on Portraits, Landscapes, mo-
delling, or Mechanics, all his doings were
equally excellent. This ingenious man
was born in the year 1727 at Sudbury in
Suffolk, his Father, who was a Clothier,
and a Dissenter in that Town, had a very
large'family, and could only bestow an
education sufficient, to put them in
a way of providing for themselves, and
he had sense enough to perceive it
was all they wanted, for all his children
were wonderfully ingenious, I was about
to say, all cqually ingenious. Mr. Gainsbo-
rough, like the best Poets, was horn a
Painter, fer he told me, that during his
Boy-Iiood, though he had no Idea of be-

coming