February 2022
The speaker was Emma Boyd, The Keeper of Art and Place at The Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury.
Thomas Gainsborough was born in 1727 in Sudbury and died in London in 1788. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of wooden goods. He spent his childhood in Sudbury in the family house which is now the Gainsborough Museum, where he impressed his father with his drawing and painting skills. By the time he was 10 years old he had painted a self-portrait and many small landscapes from around the area.
He continued his art work in his early adult life moving around and living and working in London. In 1746 he married Margaret Burr, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort and then moved to Ipswich with his young family. As his artistic ability evolved, he began sending his works to The Society of Arts Exhibitions in London in the 1760s.
In 1774 he moved his family back to London to a house in Pall Mall, where he extended his portrait painting, producing paintings of many famous people including Johann Christian Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach which hangs in the National Gallery.
In the 1760s Gainsborough associated with Mr Unwin, an agent to The Dukes of Beaufort and city banker in Hatton Garden. Mr Unwin lived with his family in Great Baddow and were neighbours of Jacob Houblon who bought The Manor of Baddow in 1736 and lived at Baddow Hall. Other fine houses in Baddow were Seabright Hall and Great Sir Hughes. Also mentioned were Mrs Itchener who came from St James’s Westminster to marry the Rev George Itchener the vicar of St Mary’s Church in Great Baddow.
Gainsborough died of cancer in 1788 and his body is interred in the churchyard of St Anne’s Church in Kew.