Gainsborough: A Portrait

By James Hamilton

Book Overview

** Selected as a Book of the Year in The Times, Sunday Times and Observer **

'Compulsively readable - the pages seem to turn themselves' John Carey, Sunday Times
'Brings one of the very greatest artists] vividly to life' Literary Review

Thomas Gainsborough lived as if electricity shot through his sinews and crackled at his finger ends. He was a gentle and empathetic family man, but had a shockingly loose, libidinous manner and a volatility that could lead him to slash his paintings.

James Hamilton reveals the artist in his many contexts: the talented Suffolk lad, transported to the heights of fashion; the rake-on-the-make in London, learning his craft in the shadow of Hogarth; the society-portrait painter in Bath and London who earned huge sums by charming the right people into his studio. With fresh insights into original sources, Gainsborough: A Portrait transforms our understanding of this fascinating man, and enlightens the century that bore him.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1474601065
• ISBN13: 9781474601061
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.1" x 7.7"