Art-Gainsborough-Landscape in Suffolk TB

This travel bug has the modest goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers.  As of 3-Sep-19 it had survived for 1.9 years and had been moved by 7 cachers.

Please drop it in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos are appreciated and will be re-posted here.

I have already released several groups of art-themed travel bugs.  While I have seen numerous works by British artists in my travels, I find they are underrepresented among my TBs.  This is one in a small series to correct that oversight.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters of 18th century Britain.  He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. His father was a weaver involved with the wool trade. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his pencilling skills so that he let him go to London to study art in 1740. In London he first trained under engraver Hubert Gravelot but eventually became associated with William Hogarth and his school.  One of his mentors was Francis Hayman. In those years he contributed to the decoration of what is now the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children and the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens.

In the 1740s, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, who settled a £200 annuity on the couple. The artist's work, then mainly composed of landscape paintings, was not selling very well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748-1749 and concentrated on the painting of portraits. In 1752, he and his family, now including two daughters, moved to Ipswich. Commissions for personal portraits increased, but his clientele included mainly local merchants and squires. He had to borrow against his wife's annuity.

In 1759, Gainsborough and his family moved to Bath. There, he studied portraits by van Dyck and was eventually able to attract a better-paying high society clientele.  Beginning in 1769, he submitted works to the Royal Academy's annual exhibitions. To attract attention, he selected portraits of well-known or notorious clients.  This garnered him national attention. 

In 1774, Gainsborough and his family moved to London.  After exhibiting portraits of many comtemporary celebrities, in 1780, he was chosen to do the portraits of King George III and his queen.  Afterwards received many royal commissions.  In 1784, royal painter Allan Ramsay died and the King was obliged to give the job to Gainsborough's rival and Academy president, Joshua Reynolds.  However, Gainsborough remained the Royal Family's favorite painter. At his own express wish, he was buried at St. Anne's Church, Kew, where the Family regularly worshipped.  The painting featured on this travel bug was chosen because it is one of the painter’s most famous efforts.