Amazing Artwork by Thomas Gainsborough

English Rococo artist Thomas Gainsborough was among the greatest English artists in history. He was known for painting impressive portraits of upper-class individuals. During the Rococo period the artist painted frivolous artworks with a light palette and easy brushstrokes. He was a pioneering landscape artist and was a founding member of the Royal Academy in London.

The Artist with His Wife and Daughter is among the several self-portraits the artist created. In this painting he depicts himself with his family, and it is a memorable but tragic portrait since it depicts their first daughter, Mary, who passed away in 1748 as an infant.

The Blue Boy is among the best-known artworks by Gainsborough. It is a full-length portrait of a young boy in a blue costume.

Cornard Wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk, is an interesting and lovely English landscape in Suffolk.

Dogs were often subjects of animal portraits. (pictured above) These Pomeranians belonged to Carl Friedrich Abel, a prominent violinist and one of the artist’s closest friends. The painting for Abel was not only a sign of sentimentality but a status symbol as well: during that time, a Pomeranian was the most expensive and fashionable dog you could own.

Elizabeth and Mary Linley is the only painting featuring both sisters together. Elizabeth Ann Linley was the model for many of his paintings since Gainsborough was a family friend. She was the second of twelve children and the first daughter of the composer Thomas Linley.

The Honorable Mrs. Graham, also known as Portrait of Mrs. Mary Graham. The portrait was created shortly after she married Thomas Graham, the future Lord Lynedoch. The painting comes with a sad story. Mary Graham contracted tuberculosis shortly after the painting was completed and passed away at the age of 35.

Market Cart is a painting depicting a horse-drawn cart driven by two girls in a wooded area. The figure on the right is a man gathering wood but this wasn’t added to the painting until 1787. It is one of his final landscapes, painted about 18 months before his death. At first, the artist displayed this painting in his own home in Pall Mall. Today it is at the National Gallery in London.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews is a painting that integrates both the artist’s creativity to paint portraits and landscapes. It was painted while the artist lived in his native Suffolk and depicts a recently married couple Robert and Frances.

Mr. and Mrs. William Hallett is a double portrait of a young couple named William and Elizabeth Stephen. The portrait was painted shortly before the couple married in the church of St. Lawrence in Little Stanmore, Harrow, London. The painting represents the light brushstrokes the artist used during the final years of his career.

The Painter’s Daughter Chasing a Butterfly is a painting that depicts the two beautiful daughters of Gainsborough—Mary and Margaret. The two girls often modeled for his paintings. It was created sometime in 1756 . The younger daughter reaching to grab the butterfly represents the fragility of life, while the elder daughter's apprehensive facial expression reveals her edging towards maturity.

The Woman in Blue is another portrait Gainsborough created in which the identity of the woman remains a mystery. This is an oil-on-canvas completed in the late 1770s or early 1780s. The artist painted this portrait while staying at Bath, Somerset. Some art historians say it is the Duchess of Beaufort, daughter of Edward Boscawen. The painting is now at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia and the only artwork by Gainsborough in Russia.