How does this artwork elucidate its History?
After effectively being rediscovered in the 1927 Ipswich exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of Gainsborough's birth, the painting was exhibited in Brussels in 1929, London in 1930, London and Manchester in 1934, Amsterdam in 1936, London in 1937, and at the Louvre in Paris in 1938. After the Second World War it was seen in Norwich in 1948, toured for the British Council in 1949–50, was in London at the Festival of Britain in 1951, Paris and London in 1953, Fort Worth, Texas, in 1954, Rotterdam and Brussels in 1955, and Sudbury in 1958 to support an appeal to buy Gainsborough's house. When owned by the National Gallery it was lent to Expo 67 in Montreal in 1967, Paris in 1981, the Prado in Madrid in 1988–89, the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1991–2, and toured Norwich and Newcastle upon Tyne in 1997.The painting remained with the family until sold by Gerald Willoughbury Andrews (b. 1896, a great-great-great-grandson of the sitters) at Sotheby's in London on 23 March 1960. It was bought for £130,000 by the dealers Thomas Agnew & Sons, apparently as agents for the National Gallery, to whom it soon belonged. It was purchased with a "Special Grant from the Exchequer" and contributions from the Pilgrim Trust, The Art Fund, Associated Television Ltd, and Mr and Mrs W. W. Spooner. This was still below the $621,000 paid in 1921 by Henry Huntington to Joseph Duveen (about £148,000 at the time) for The Blue Boy, and seemed "cheap" to Gerald Reitlinger, writing in 1970, before art prices began to escalate to their present levels.The painting is in good condition, and entirely finished apart from the reserved area discussed above.
Festival of Britain Expo 67 National Gallery British Council The Art Fund Amsterdam Prado Associated Television Fort Worth, Texas Montreal Art Fund Thomas Agnew & Sons Gerald Reitlinger Madrid Brussels the Louvre National Portrait Gallery, London The Blue Boy Sotheby's Henry Huntington Newcastle upon Tyne Ipswich Manchester Joseph Duveen Pilgrim Trust Norwich