August 2.
Chronology.
Thomas Gainsborough, eminent as a painter, and for love of his art, died on the second of August, 1788. His last words were, “We are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the party.” He was buried, by his own desire, near his friend Kirby, the author of the Treatise on “Perspective,” in the grave-yard of Kew chapel.
Gainsborough was born at Sudbury, in Suffolk, in 1727, where his father was a clothier, and nature the boy’s teacher. He passed his mornings in the woods alone; and in solitary rambles sketched old trees, brooks, a shepherd and his flock, cattle, or whatever his fancy seized on. After painting several landscapes, he arrived in London and received instructions from Gravelot and Hayman: he lived in Hatton-Garden, married a lady with 200l. a year went to Bath, and painted portraits for five guineas, till the demand for his talent enabled him gradually to raise the price to a 100l. He settled in Pall-mall in 1774, with fame and fortune.
Gainsborough, while at Bath, was chosen a member of the Royal Academy on its institution, but neglected its meetings. Sir Joshua Reynolds says, “whether he most excelled in portraits, landscapes, or fancy pictures, it is most difficult to determine.” His aërial perspective is uncommonly light and beautiful. He derived his grace and elegance from nature, rather than manners; and hence his paintings are inimitably true and bewitching. Devoted to his art, he regretted leaving it; just before his death, he said, “he saw his deficiences, and had endeavoured to remedy them in his last works.”
No object was too mean for Gainsborough’s pencil; his habit of closely observing things in their several particulars, enabled him to perceive their relations to each other, and combine them. By painting at night, he acquired new perceptions: he had eyes and saw, and he secured every advantage he discovered. He etched three plates; one for “Kirby’s Perspective;” another an oak tree with gypsies; and the third, a man ploughing on a rising ground, which he spoiled in “biting in:” the print is rare.
In portraits he strove for natural character, and when this was attained, seldom proceeded farther. He could have imparted intelligence to the features of the dullest, but he disdained to elevate what nature had forbidden to rise; hence, if he painted a butcher in his Sunday-coat, he made him, as he looked, a respectable yeoman; but his likenesses were chiefly of persons of the first quality, and he maintained their dignity. His portraits are seldom highly finished, and are not sufficiently estimated, for the very reason whereon his reputation for natural scenery is deservedly high. Sir Joshua gave Gainsborough one hundred guineas for a picture of a girl and pigs, though its artist only required sixty.[285]
Gainsborough had what the world calls eccentricities. They resulted rather from his indulgence in study, than contempt for the usages of society. It was well for Gainsborough that he could disregard the courtesies of life without disturbance to his happiness, from those with whom manners are morals.
A series of “Studies of Figures” from Gainsborough’s “Sketch Books,” are executed in lithography, in exact imitation of his original drawings by Mr. Richard Lane. Until this publication, these drawings were unknown. Mr. Lane’s work is to Gainsborough, what the prints in Mr. Otley’s “Italian School of Design,” are to Raphael and Michael Angelo. Each print is so perfect a fac-simile, that it would be mistaken for the original drawing, if we were not told otherwise. This is the way to preserve the reputation of artists. Their sketches are often better than their paintings; the elaboration of a thought tends to evaporate its spirit.