RÉSIDENCE # 06/07 (ENG)

Peter Darnell Muilman, Charles Crokatt and William Keable
Gainsborough’s House
Sudbury, UK
gainsborough.org

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Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Peter Darnell Muilman, Charles Crokatt and William Keable
in a Landscape, Circa 1749-51.
Oil on canvas
Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury. 1993.025. Purchased jointly with Tate, London
with grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the National Art Collections Fund
and an anonymous donation given through the National Art Collections Fund
and the Gainsborough’s House Society Development Trust, July 1993.
© Gainsborough’s House.

Text : Mahaut de La Motte-Broöns, Assistant Curator, Gainsborough’s House.

This informal group portrait or ‘conversation-piece’ shows three young men relaxing under an oak tree in a recognisably East Anglian landscape. The sitters are believed to be (from left to right) Charles Crokatt (1730-96), the son of a wealthy merchant originally from South Carolina, living in Luxborough Hall, near Chigwell, Essex; William Keable (1714/5?-74), an artist and amateur musician; and Peter Darnell Muilman (1730-66), the son of a wealthy merchant of London. The clear delineation of the features of William Keable’s head of, contrary to the vaguer outline of the two other heads, suggests that Gainsborough knew him well. Keable’s attendance at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy during the 1740s at the same time of Gainsborough may have been the occasion for them to meet, especially since both shared a Suffolk origin – Keable being born in Cratfield, north of Ipswich. Keable may have recommended Gainsborough for this commission. Peter Muilman, his hand tucked inside his waistcoat, is the most prominent figure. It is thought to be the latter’s father, Henry, who commissioned the portrait. it may have been painted in celebration of the engagement of Peter’s sister, Anna, to Charles Crokatt. The stiff facial features and legs recall the work of Gainsborough’s mentor Francis Hayman (1707/8-76) and probably indicate the use of a lay figure as studio help. There is, however, an elegance in the positioning of the figures, particularly Keable’s, who owes much to Gainsborough’s other early mentor Hubert-François Bourguignon « Gravelot » (1699–1773), and is reminiscent of his “Figures de mode” or fashion plates. The portrait will be on loan for the Frick 2026 exhibition “Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture”.