Thomas Gainsborough [Hardcover]

Michael Rosenthal (Author), Martin Myrone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was one of the masters of 18th-century art. This stunning book, published to accompany a major international exhibition, covering the artist's entire career, reveals the sheer range, quality, and originality of Gainsborough's work, from his engagingly naturalistic landscapes and touching images of children to his sophisticated and glamorous society portraits.

In their revealing essay, Michael Rosenthal and Martin Myrone explore Gainsborough's dynamic involvement with the social world of his day, while other essays explore his subtle approach to the lucrative world of fashionable portraiture and the often pointed social commentary behind his seductive landscapes. This volume provides new and refreshing insights into Gainsborough as an artist who succeeded in creating an experimental and modern art for his own time, and whose works remain vital and rewarding today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eighteenth-century portraitist and landscape artist Thomas Gainsborough's most recent retrospective reaffirms for a new generation his sturdy place in the mainstream of British art history. Born in Sudbury in 1727, Gainsborough went to London to study (first as a silversmith), where he ran with the smart set but struggled to sell work. Commissions grew when he moved to Ipswich, but with money still a problem, he and his family moved to Bath, where he matured as an artist, painting-and socializing with-fashionable society. When he returned to London in 1774, his career as a courtier-artist in the tradition of William Hogarth was cemented. His work, Titian-like in its scrum of brushwork, was notable for its technical virtuosity, somehow resolving from mottled skeins of color close up into precise, naturalist shapes and hues at a distance. Over the years, as this catalogue attests by its mere existence, he has remained a bedrock of British realism, his excellent society portraits (particularly his women in shiny dresses) and park-like forest scenes still beguiling to the modern eye. Less successful are his images of peasant life, however, which betray a deep unfamiliarity with those outside his social caste, and often compensate by blending them into the landscape as a kind of fleshy rock or tree. The accompanying text, although printed too small and thin, provides ample if somewhat dry information on the artist and his oeuvre, with close readings of his wide-ranging pictures and social life. This handsome, well-illustrated catalogue will maintain Gainsborough's reputation admirably well until his next revival rolls around. 254 illustrations, 195 plates in color.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Michael Rosenthal is a leading expert on British social and cultural history and has written several books on 18th-century art. Martin Myrone is a curator at Tate Britain specializing in 18th- and 19th-century British art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1st Ed. edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810944405
• ISBN-13: 978-0810944404
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,321,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To remember past emotions..., September 9, 2005

By 

S. H. LEE (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thomas Gainsborough (Hardcover)

This catalogue contains beautiful reproductions of all the drawings and paintings from the last great Gainsborough's exhibition. It helps to remember the emotions I've felt in front of the true works. Every notice is sensitive and informative. And all texts are from eminent specialists. I just regret that bibliography doesn't refer to the old great Paris exhibition.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, December 2, 2008

By 

Jodi-Hummingbird - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thomas Gainsborough (Hardcover)

This is THE Gainsborough book.

The image on the cover is my favourite.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Artist, March 18, 2006

By 

Dwight Perrotte "Artist" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thomas Gainsborough (Hardcover)

I was totally amazed at the extra-ordinary talent of Thomas Gainsborough. He is truly one of the all-time great artist. I appreciated the fact that his paintings were shown in color. This book also gave a thorough description of his life. I am happy I purchased this book!

Dwight