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Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) was an English painter. Along with his bitter rival, Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British portrait artists of the second half of the 18th century. Born and raised in Sudbury, Suffolk, Gainsborough lived in London during the 1740s, where he trained under engraver Hubert-François Gravelot and contributed to the decoration of Vauxhall Gardens. After marrying Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, Gainsborough moved back to Sudbury and then to Ipswich, Bath and London. Gainsborough was a fast painter and worked more from observations of nature than from application of formal academic rules. Despite being a prolific portrait painter, Gainsborough gained greater satisfaction from his landscapes.
This painting is a self-portrait of Gainsborough, painted shortly before he moved from Ipswich to Bath in 1759. It is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.Painting: Thomas Gainsborough