Gainsborough (World of Art)

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Gainsborough is one of the most appealing artists of the eighteenth century.

Renowned for such elegant portraits as The Blue Boy and Countess Howe, he also pioneered a new form of landscape with a moody sensibility that prefigured the Romantic movement. He was a brilliant draftsman, and his art is full of inventiveness and visual delight.

William Vaughan draws on recently discovered material to provide a fresh perspective on both the life and art of this master. He shows how closely Gainsborough’s innovative manner can be connected to social and political developments in Britain, in particular the celebration of original genius in a time of burgeoning entrepreneurial commercialism. Above all, he demonstrates how, beneath the artist’s charm, there lay a bedrock of shrewd observation and pictorial intelligence that gives his work a value for all time.
Extent: 224 pp
Format: Paperback
Illustrations: 172
Publication date: 2002-03-11
Size: 21.0 x 15.0 cm
ISBN: 9780500203583

Press Reviews

Gainsborough is placed in the premier division of British artists in this perceptive monograph
The Independent

A tremendous book, with a good flowing concise style…it will be useful for students following a syllabus as well as anyone who sees these delicious paintings and wants to know more
The Lecturer

A tremendous book, with a good flowing concise style…it will be useful for students following a syllabus as well as anyone who sees these delicious paintings and wants to know more
The Lecturer


About the Author

William Vaughan is a British Art Historian and has been Emeritus Professor of History of Art at Birkbeck College, University of London since 2003.

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