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Gainsborough

By Max Rothschild




"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES


ARTIST.                 AUTHOR.

VELAZQUEZ.              S. L. BENSUSAN.
REYNOLDS.               S. L. BENSUSAN.
TURNER.                 C. LEWIS HIND.
ROMNEY.                 C. LEWIS HIND.
GREUZE.                 ALYS EYRE MACKLIN.
BOTTICELLI.             HENRY B. BINNS.
ROSSETTI.               LUCIEN PISSARRO.
BELLINI.                GEORGE HAY.
FRA ANGELICO.           JAMES MASON.
REMBRANDT.              JOSEF ISRAELS.
LEIGHTON.               A. LYS BALDRY.
RAPHAEL.                PAUL G. KONODY.
HOLMAN HUNT.            MARY E. COLERIDGE.
TITIAN.                 S. L. BENSUSAN.
MILLAIS.                A. LYS BALDRY.
CARLO DOLCI.            GEORGE HAY.
GAINSBOROUGH.           MAX ROTHSCHILD.
TINTORETTO.             S. L. BENSUSAN.
LUINI.                  JAMES MASON.
FRANZ HALS.             EDGCUMBE STALEY.
VAN DYCK.               PERCY M. TURNER.
LEONARDO DA VINCI.      M. W. BROCKWELL.
RUBENS.                 S. L. BENSUSAN.
WHISTLER.               T. MARTIN WOOD.
HOLBEIN.                S. L. BENSUSAN.
BURNE-JONES.            A. LYS BALDRY.
VIGEE LE BRUN.          C. HALDANE MACFALL.
CHARDIN.                PAUL G. KONODY.
FRAGONARD.              C. HALDANE MACFALL.
MEMLINC.                W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE.
CONSTABLE.              C. LEWIS HIND.
RAEBURN.                JAMES L. CAW.
JOHN S. SARGENT.        T. MARTIN WOOD.
LAWRENCE.               S. L. BENSUSAN.
DUeRER.                  H. E. A. FURST.
MILLET.                 PERCY M. TURNER.
WATTEAU.                C. LEWIS HIND.
HOGARTH.                C. LEWIS HIND.
MURILLO.                S. L. BENSUSAN.
WATTS.                  W. LOFTUS HARE.
INGRES.                 A. J. FINBERG.
COROT.                  SIDNEY ALLNUTT.
DELACROIX.              PAUL G. KONODY.

_Others in Preparation._


PLATE I.--MRS. SIDDONS. (Frontispiece)

     This famous portrait of Mrs. Siddons was painted in 1784.
     It is one of the chief ornaments in the National Gallery,
     London. It represents the celebrated actress in her
     twenty-ninth year. The picture was purchased in 1862 from
     a relative of Mrs. Siddons.

[Illustration: PLATE I.--MRS. SIDDONS.]




Gainsborough

BY MAX ROTHSCHILD

ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR

[Illustration]

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.




CONTENTS


                                                            Page

  I. Painting in England before Gainsborough                  11

 II. Gainsborough's Early Life--Ipswich and Bath              25

III. Gainsborough's Life in London--Last Years and Death      46

 IV. Gainsborough's Works                                     65




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Plate

   I. Mrs. Siddons                                      Frontispiece
        At the National Gallery, London
                                                            Page
  II. Ralph Schomberg, M.D.                                   14
        At the National Gallery, London

 III. Queen Charlotte                                         24
        At the South Kensington Museum

  IV. "The Blue Boy"                                          34
        At Grosvenor House

   V. The Hon. Mrs. Graham                                    40
        At the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

  VI. The Duchess of Devonshire                               50
        In the collection of Earl Spencer, K.G.

 VII. Mrs. Robinson--"Perdita"                                60
        At the Wallace Collection

VIII. Miss Haverfield                                         70
        At the Wallace Collection




[Illustration]

I

PAINTING IN ENGLAND BEFORE GAINSBOROUGH


The British school of painting was, compared with those of the other
nations of Western Europe, the latest to develop. In Italy, Spain,
France, the Netherlands, Germany, and even Scandinavia painting and
sculpture flourished as early as the Gothic Age, and in most of these
countries the Renaissance produced a host of craftsmen whose works
still endure among the most superb creations of artistic genius. It is
now inexact to say that there was no _primitive_ period in British Art;
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, so resplendent on
the Continent with pictures and statues reflecting the character, the
aspirations, the temperament of the respective peoples that produced
them, produced works of art also in these islands. There are ample
records of pictures having been painted in England, both religious
subjects and portraits, at a very early age, as far back even as the
reign of Henry III.; of such remote productions little has been
preserved, but there