Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/370

 landscapes, of which one, called by Fulcher ‘The Return from Harvest,’ but engraved by Finden as ‘The Hay Cart,’ contains portraits of Gainsborough's two daughters. It was sold in 1867 for 3,147l. 10s., and was exhibited by Lord Tweedmouth at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885 under the title of ‘The Harvest Waggon.’ Besides those already named, Gainsborough painted while at Bath portraits of Lord Kilmorey, Mr. Moysey (there is a sketch of it in the National Gallery), Dr. Charlton, Mr. Thicknesse, the first Lord Camden, Cramer, the metallurgist, Richardson, the novelist, Sterne, Chatterton, and John Henderson, the actor. Of the last he became the firm friend and patron, and some lively letters which he wrote to him have been preserved, in which he praises Garrick as ‘the greatest creature living in every respect,’ and adds, ‘he is worth studying in every action. … Look upon him, Henderson, with your imitative eyes, for when he drops you'll have nothing but poor old Nature's book to look in. You'll be left to grope about alone, scratching your pate in the dark, or by a farthing candle. Now is your time, my lively fellow. And do you hear, don't eat so devilishly. You'll get too fat when you rest from playing, or get a sudden jog by illness to bring you down again.’ This is a fair sample of the style of Gainsborough's correspondence, spirited, careless, sometimes too free in expression, but always fresh and often witty. To his strong taste for music he added a passion for fine musical instruments, and William Jackson [q. v.] of Exeter, the composer, gives a humorous account in his ‘Four Ages’ of the manner in which Gainsborough acquired in rapid succession Giardini's violin, Abel's viol-di-gamba, Fischer's hautboy, the harp of a harper, and the theorbo of a German professor. Without accepting Jackson's theory that Gainsborough thought he could acquire the art of the musician by purchasing his instrument, we may well believe him when he says that ‘though possessed of ear, taste, and genius, he never had application enough to learn his notes,’ and that ‘there were times when music seemed to be Gainsborough's employment and painting his diversion.’ Both had something to do with his flight to London in the summer of 1774, the immediate cause being a quarrel with Thicknesse about that eccentric gentleman's unfinished portrait and his wife's viol-di-gamba.

On his return to London Gainsborough took up his residence in the west part of Schomberg House, Pall Mall (this part is still standing), for which he paid 300l. a year to John Astley the painter [q. v.], who occupied the remainder. A few months after his arrival the king summoned him to the palace, and after this the full tide of prosperity flowed till his death. In 1777 he began again to exhibit at the Royal Academy, sending a large landscape and six portraits, among which were those of the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, Lord Gage, and Abel. The large landscape was declared by Horace Walpole, in his notes on this year's catalogue, to be ‘in the style of Rubens, and by far the finest landscape ever painted in England, and equal to the great masters.’ Among the ten works he exhibited in 1778 were a portrait of Christie the auctioneer (a present from the artist) and the Duchess of Devonshire. He is said to have been dissatisfied with this portrait of the lovely duchess, and would not send it to Chatsworth. ‘Her Grace is too hard for me,’ he averred, and drew his pencil across the mouth. He exhibited another picture of the duchess in 1783, and a picture in the Wynn Ellis collection named ‘The Duchess of Devonshire’ was sold in 1876, and was bought by Messrs. Agnew for 10,605l., a price higher than any before given for a picture at Christie's [see ]. A few days afterwards it was stolen, and was has not been recovered since. Early in 1779 (says Fulcher) Gainsborough probably painted that full-length portrait of the son of Mr. Buttall, which is usually known as ‘The Blue Boy,’ and this portrait is said to have been painted to refute the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds in his eighth discourse ‘that the masses of light in a picture should be always of a warm, mellow colour,’ and the cold colours ‘used only to support and set off these warm colours.’ This discourse was delivered in December 1778, so that the picture of 1770 before referred to, if it really were a ‘Blue Boy,’ could not have been affected by it. Gainsborough probably painted more than one ‘Blue Boy,’ and there are many copies, but the picture belonging to the Duke of Westminster is the most famous of those to which the name has been given. There is no doubt that it is authentic and a masterpiece, and the questions as to when it was painted, whom it represents, whether it was meant to refute Sir Joshua's dictum, and whether it does refute it, or only evades it, cannot be discussed here. (The notes by Mr. F. G. Stephens to the Grosvenor Gallery Winter Catalogue of 1885 contain information and references which will be useful to any one who wished to study these problems.)

At the exhibition of 1779 were portraits of the Duchesses of Gloucester and Cumberland, the Duke of Argyll, and Judge Perryn.