Letter from Thomas Gainsborough to the Earl of Dartmouth
Gainsborough’s House
Sudbury, Royaume-Uni
www.gainsborough.org
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Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88)
Letter to William, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth [Bath 18 April 1771]
Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury. 1973.002
Purchased with donations and a grant given
by the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, July 1973
© Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury
https://gainsborough.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/545/
Text : Mahaut de La Motte-Broöns, Assistant Curator, Gainsborough’s House.
This letter is one of three letters from Thomas Gainsborough to William, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth written at five-day intervals in April 1771. Dartmouth and his wife had their portraits painted by Gainsborough in 1769. Lady Dartmouth is likely to have requested being painted in a “fancied Dress”. Gainsborough thought such “Poetical impossibilities” would compromise the likeness of his portraits and did not like painting them.
Besides Gainsborough’s visible frustration with his sitter and client, his letter hints at his rivalry with Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds had been knighted in 1769 and his portraits of sitters in “van Dyke” costumes were fashionable.
Transcription of the letter
Bath
April 18th
My Lord
Here it is then – Nothing can be/
more absurd than the foolish custom of Painters/
dressing people like scaramouches, and expecting/
the likeness to appear; had a picture a Voice,/
Action, &c to make itself known, as Actors have/
upon the Stage, no disguise would be sufficient/
to conceal a person; but only a face, confined/
to one View, and not a muscle to move to say/
here I am, falls very hard upon the poor Painter/
who perhaps is not within a mile of the/
truth in painting the Face only – Your Lordship/
I’m sure will be sensible of the Effect of Dress/
thus far, but I defy any but a Painter of some/
Sagacity (and such you see am I my Lord) to be/
well aware of the different Effects which one/
part of the picture has upon another, and how/
the Eye may be cheated, as to the appearance/
of Size &c by an artful management of/
the accompanyments_ A Tune may be so/
confused by a false Bass, so that if it is/
ever so plain simple and full of meaning/
it shall become a jumble of nonsense,/
and just so shall a <handsom> Face be overset/
by a fictitious bundle of trumpery of the/
foolish Painters own inventing_ For my own/
part however your Lordship may suspect my/
Genius for lying) I have that regard for/
truth, that I hold the finest invention/
as a mere slave in Comparison: I believe I shall/
remain an Ignorant fellow to the end of my/
days, because I never could have patience/
to read Poetical impossibilities, the very/
food of a Painter: especially if he intends to be/
Knighted xxxx in this Land of Roast Beef./
So well do serious People love froth__
But where am I my Lord! This my free/
Opinion in another Line with a witness_
forgive me my Lord I’m but a wild Goose/
at best_ all I mean is this, Lady Dartmouth’s/
Picture will look more like and not so large when/
dress’d properly; and if it does not, I’ll begin/
another. It is safe arrived.
I am your Lordships most/
Obedient
Tho Gainsborough
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