Thomas Gainsborough

King George III and Queen Charlotte; actors Sarah Siddons and David Garrick; Johann Christian Bach, Admiral George Rodney, and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. The defining personalities of 18th-century England have been fixed in our minds by the brilliant Thomas Gainsborough, the Suffolk portrait painter who would rather have been a landscape artist.

Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough was rightly considered one of the most important British artists working in Georgian London. In 1768 the two artists were among the 34 founders of the Royal Academy of Arts. Reynolds was the exponent of the Grand Style, idealising his sitters without losing a genuine likeness. By contrast, Gainsborough’s subjects seem more real to 21st-century eyes. Compare his portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire with that of his rival and they