Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.56
Gallery Label:
Working in his native Suffolk, Gainsborough painted members of the professional classes, such as John Gravenor, an apothecary and local politician; his wife, Ann; and their two daughters. Gainsborough has arranged them in a harmonious group alongside a wheat field, as if they have stopped on a walk, the girls holding freshly picked flowers in their hands. --- Gainsborough supported his own family through portraiture — or the “Face way” — but he took his greatest pleasure in landscape painting. He carefully details the crossing trees behind the couple and opens up the landscape behind them to include a distant church. The darkening sky serves as a contrast to the fashionable dresses worn by the Gravenor women. Fluid brushstrokes give the impression of light dancing across the brightly colored silks. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025
