Gainsborough, Thomas

(1727-1788)

Thomas Gainsborough was born in a small, typical of eastern England town, which once knew the heyday, but then calmed down by the river, surrounded by meadows and oak forests. Family Gainsborough was a typical family of respectable merchants. His father sold cloth, his business gradually fell into decay, like many others on the eve of the great Industrial Revolution. And only Thomas, Jr., the ninth child in the family was atypical. Rather than scrutinize the work of his father, he was walking to school, drawing everything he saw around him, - trees, green hedges, ravines, cliffs, shepherds, farmers, horses, dogs, pigs and cats. Much later, becoming a famous artist, he would call these children's games 'Riding School'. When he was 13 years old, a relative took him to London, and has attached to a silversmith.

. In no other Western countries, according to the modern historian Arnold Toynbee, a single city do not trump everything else, like London
. The population was less than in France, Germany or even Italy, and London at the end of XVII century was the largest city in Europe. It boiled cultural life working 17 theaters, scientific societies, there was a strong art school - the whole world, independent and influential, not least of which occupied by patrons, patrons of talent. One of them noticed the boy's capable of, providing the opportunity to study at Thomas Martins Academy (Royal Academy of Arts bu-child created only after thirty-odd years).

. All was confusion in the artistic culture of England at the time - the remnants of the principles and traditions of the Baroque, . dictated a solemn 'big style'; there from the French Rococo, . elegant, . ornamental, . but not deep; classicism with its organized forms, . idealized nature, . strict hierarchy of the arts, . in which the favorite Gainsborough landscape and portrait occupied the lowest step; centimentalizm, . elicited 'natural chuvctvam'; budding acute, . satirical realism.,

. Art galleries and museums in England have not had access to private collections had not any, but there was a great British invention - the auctions, which exhibited paintings for sale
. Already in those years he worked the famous Christie's auction. With its founder, a former sailor, John Christie, later befriends Gainsborough and leave us a portrait. At auction exhibitions and art reflects the struggle of opinions and tastes.

T. Gainsborough. 'Lady in Blue' (Duchesse de Beaufort). End 1770

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. Junior Thomas Gainsborough absorbed powerful painting by Rubens and Van Dyck, . thin realistic painting 'small Dutch', . realism Hogarth, . curves of the Rococo, . but in later years not copied winning ways, . and with their help, tried to convey the status and movement of nature, . nature of man.,

. In the beginning, forced to earn a living, he does decorative work, wrote little landscapes
. One of the earliest paintings depicts subscription ... Bull Bumpers in a landscape, but on the back of his hand made a compelling artist's inscription: 'A remarkably clever dog'.

. Soon Gainsborough notice and begin to appreciate colleagues, . Hogarth himself invited him to participate in decorating orphanage, . and he wrote the form of the London Hospital 'Charterhouse' - powerful brick walls, . burden of which melted in warm reddish tones and does not suppress, . extending deep into the paved roadway, . unevenly illuminated and therefore plays all shades, . what can make brick and stone sunbeam, . bright spot in the small black figures of children, . left - the trees, . above them - a breakthrough in the sky, . foaming clouds.,

. In this work, performed in 1748, when Gainsborough was 21 years old, shows how it originated particular skill
. When the inevitable for images of architectural forms mathematically precise construction of tracks here is already present movement, engaging the viewer in a closed space is an attempt to break, creating forms of the game of shadows and light. Human figures - the rhythmic point - already trying to live their own lives.

In the mature Gainsborough we do not find any urban architectural landscapes, or even recognizable images of specific places. Despite the need to earn money, he refused to write a topographically accurate views of estates that are eager to have English squires.

. Order 'for the soul' made in Lons-dong failed, and Gainsborough moved to a small port town of Ipswich, where there were fewer competitors
. , Who first invited him to her, was a local landowner, who wanted to ... paint windows and doors. However, this is gradually being established - in the Ipswich artist painted about 80 portraits, showing a remarkable gift to instantly and accurately grasp the similarities.

. For a long time, mainly in the works of Gainsborough portrait was considered, although the self-Momo artist has always been closer landscape
. 'I'm sick of portraits - he wrote a friend - terribly anxious to retire to some sweet village where I could paint landscapes ...'. However, abstract landscapes, while not appreciated, but because you did not order and did not buy, the fashion for them came only in the late XVIII century. Perhaps the need to paint portraits for money, combined with the psychic need to write Gainsborough landscapes and led to one of his major artistic innovation - the creation of landscape portraiture, where man and nature merge into one.

. T
. Gainsborough. 'Blue Boy'. About 1770


Enormous role in the artist played his rare musicality. By some miracle, Gainsborough was able to transfer his love of music and her keen understanding of painting - in portraits, where light game of the bright spots, wavy lines create the impression that only the ringing ceased to vibrate, in landscapes - with their rhythmic roll.

. 'Les Cornaro' ( 'Les Gainsborough'), written in 1748 - the result of early artist's
. Current under cloudy skies between the mighty trees, winding road riddled with silvery light. Farmers on the road is no longer just small figures, but part of nature, worthy of artistic representation. In landscapes, created in Ipswich, silvery tones give way to warmer - red, orange. Drawing becomes a generic, you can not tell an oak from an elm tree, do not know the bush or a flower. Gainsborough moving away from the actual observations in nature and varies at the discretion of a variety of reasons, the memories of his native place. In portraits he is trying to convey an instant, immediate impression of the model, despite its 'social status', he is interested in ordinary everyday appearance of a person.

. In 1759 the artist left Ipswich and moved to the fashionable resort town of Bath, . about which we know from the works of Charles Dickens, . - There from October to April high society gathered, . services which were mineral water, . Pools, . Entertainment,
. In Bata rivals at Gainsborough was not, and the first written them a large portrait of Al-HN Ford, a musician, amateur, dreaming of a career, attracted worldwide attention. Love the artist to the music dictated the composition of the portrait - the outlines of a female figure repeats the shape of the zither, lying on the knees Anne, and serving of the penumbra viola. The image was so alive, that contemporaries called him 'great blende', and so bold, that bred ladies thought it unseemly.

That word - 'indecent! " - Gainsborough heard more than once, and often led him ... love animals. They said that in his portrait of Viscount Ligone artist has paid much more attention to the horse than his master, and written as a gift to the Royal Society of Edinburgh port-PET Duke of Buccleuch in an embrace with your favorite dog ever was indignantly rejected.

. In 1759 began an annual public exhibition at London Art Society, Gainsborough and regularly sends them on their work, stand out sharply against the background
. At that time, dominated by two types of landscapes - heroic and historic, who developed the famous French painter Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, and prosaic topographical vidopis so dear to the hearts of the British owners of estates. Gainsborough also shows the natural life of nature and human life in nature. His landscapes are based on the curved shape, forming a whirlpool, the movement unfolds in a spiral, drawing the viewer's eye. Infinitely varied lighting effects that convey different time of day; artists attracted night landscape, trying to work in artificial light. Musicality of his compositions helps to move away from the direct transfer of nature and to do its rhythmic transformation. The serenity and tranquility are replaced by a powerful movement.

T. Gainsborough. Portrait of the actress Sarah Siddons. 1783-1785


An exceptionally unusual was the creative method of Gainsborough. Not making sketches, he began work immediately on the canvas in a darkened studio, gradually letting in more light, to snatch the details, but never resorted to petty finish. According to his chief rival, the first president of the Academy of Art, Sir Joshua Reynolds, near Gainsborough painting looked like a real chaos, but at a distance of everything magically rose to their seats and taking shape. Externally unfinished painting makes the viewer think and dream, participating in the creative process.

Gainsborough willingly went to all sorts of technical experiments. In London in 1781, there were several sessions a kind of magic lantern, with which were shown on an illuminated screen, accompanied by various types of music - what is today called the slides. Fascinated by this pastime, Gainsborough built his own apparatus and painted dozens of glass plates - a lunar landscape with a hut, Gypsies campfire ... According to a friend Gainsborough, the famous actor Garrick, his head was 'so packed with all sorts of talent that there is always a danger that it will explode like an overheated boiler'.

. Wrote Gainsborough almost two-meter tassels, . trying at the same distance from the model and from the canvas, put the shadow bound to stick a piece of sponge, . and gaps addressed the fragment be-poured, . squeezed sugar tongs; paint bred very liquid,
. His port-portraits of often appear overly bright, but we must remember that the ladies in the XVIII century did not think of myself without make-up, were very fashionable red lips, black eyebrows and eyelashes, white, blush, heavily powdered hair. 'In the port of the differentiated painting - wrote Gainsborough - to a variety of fast and unexpected effects - such that-be heart leaped ... need luster and finish to reveal the inner life of the individual '.

. How unusual inner life manifested itself in the works of Gainsborough early 1770-ies! Magnificent grand wedding portrait of 17-year old Mary Graham - she of the stormy dark silver figurine, ash-gray and muted gold tones
. Image and atmosphere of the portrait is almost superstitious feeling - Mrs. Graham died young, passionately fond of her husband was not able to look at the image. The picture was packed and secreted by almost half a century. Jonathan Buttle (this portrait is also called 'Blue Boy') is in a sky-blue suit to brownish-gray background of foliage and sunset - what the significance and power in this exquisite image!

. Meanwhile Gainsborough invited to become one of the 36 founding members of the Royal Academy, and in 1774 he moved to London, where he will inevitably have to engage in competition with Reynolds.

. A rare to the XVIII century insight into the spiritual world we see in the portrait of the Duchesse de Beaufort ( 'Lady in Blue' - the only picture of Gainsborough in our country, . in the Hermitage), . if spun from lung swabs, . melting and flickering in exquisite harmony cold then-new; Queen Charlotte, . ugly, . but enchanting the audience with virtuoso (more on this canvas one of his contemporaries said: "The indication of the talent - creating beautiful things out of impossible plots'), moving in the Tang-tse Giovanna Bachelli, the famous actress Sarah Siddons, and many other works of Gainsborough, . leave us this gallery of portraits of English society.,

. Example of another artist's masterpiece - a portrait of Mrs. Sheridan, the wife of the famous playwright, written in 1783
. She sits on a bench under a tree, almost dissolving in a Landscape. It is difficult to understand where the strands of her hair, ribbon scarf, and where the waves in the wind leaves. Beautiful thoughtful person will always shine in the soft twilight of the day.

Fame came to Gainsborough, shortly before his death. In the obituaries called him 'a singer of nature', which the artist sought his life, and in the middle of the XVIII century, Thomas Gainsborough to pave the way not only romantic, but the Impressionists, far ahead of its time.