Gainsborough was pre-eminent in that very essential element of portraiture—truthful likeness. In process of time he advanced in the rendering of immediate expression, while he somewhat receded in general character. He always made his sitters look pleasant, and, after a while, distinguished. Unity of impression is one of the most marked qualities in his work; he seems to have seen his subject as an integer, and he wrought at the various parts of it together, every touch (and very wilful some of his touches look) tending towards the foreseen result. He painted with arrowy speed, more especially in his later years. For portraits he used at times brushes upon sticks 6 ft. long; there was but little light in his painting-room, and he often worked in the evenings. He kept his landscape work distinct from his portraiture, not ever adding to the latter a fully realized landscape background; his views he never signed or dated—his likenesses only once or twice. His skies are constantly cloudy, the country represented is rough and broken; the scenes are of a pastoral kind, with an effect generally of coming rain, or else of calm sun-setting. The prevalent feeling of his landscapes is somewhat sad, and to children, whether in subject-groups or in portraits, he mostly lent an expression rather plaintive than mirthful. It should be acknowledged that, whether in portraiture or in landscape, the painter’s mannerisms of execution increased in process of time—patchings of the brush, tufty foliage, &c.; some of his portraits are hurried and flimsy, with a minimum of solid content, though not other than artistic in feeling. Here are a few of his axioms:—“What makes the difference between man and man is real performance, and not genius or conception.” “I don’t think it would be more ridiculous for a person to put his nose close to the canvas and say the colours smelt offensive than to say how rough the paint lies, for one is just as material as the other with regard to hurting the effect and drawing of a picture.” “The eye is the only perspective-master needed by a landscape-painter.”
Authorities.—In 1788 Philip Thicknesse, Lieutenant-Governor of Landguard Fort, Ipswich, who had been active in promoting the artist’s fortunes at starting, published A Sketch of the Life and Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough. He had quarrelled with the painter at Bath, partly because the latter had undertaken to do a portrait of him as a gift, and then neglected the work, and finally, in a huff, bundled it off only half done. The crucial question here is whether or not Gainsborough was reasonably pledged to perform any such gratuitous work, and this point has been contested. Thicknesse’s book is in part adverse to Gainsborough, and more particularly so to his wife. Reynolds’s “Lecture” on Gainsborough, replete with critical insight, should never be lost sight of as a leading document. In 1856 a heedfully compiled Life of Thomas Gainsborough was brought out by T.W. Fulcher. This was the first substantial work about him subsequent to Allan Cunningham’s lively account (1829) in his Lives of the Painters. Of late years a great deal has been written, mainly but not by any means exclusively from the critical or technical point of view:—Sir Walter Armstrong (two works, 1896 and 1898); Mrs Arthur Bell (1902); Sir W.M. Conway, Artistic Development of Reynolds and Gainsborough (1886); Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower (1903); G.M. Brock-Arnold (1881). G. Pauli has brought out an illustrated work in Germany (1904) under the title Gainsborough.
(W. M. R.)
GAINSBOROUGH, a market town in the W. Lindsey or Gainsborough parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England; on the right (E.) bank of the Trent. Pop. of urban district (1901) 17,660. It is served by the Lincoln-Doncaster joint line of the Great Northern and Great Eastern railways, by which it is 16 m. N.W. of Lincoln, and by the Great Central railway. The parish church of All Saints is classic of the 18th century, excepting the Perpendicular tower. The two other parish churches are modern. The Old Hall, of the 15th century, enlarged in the 16th, is a picturesque building, forming three sides of a quadrangle, partially timber-framed, but having a beautiful oriel window and other parts of stone. There is also a Tudor tower of brick. A literary and scientific institute occupy part of the building. Gainsborough possesses a grammar school (founded in 1589 by a charter of Queen Elizabeth) and other schools, town-hall, county court-house, Albert Hall and Church of England Institute. There is a large carrying trade by water on the Trent and neighbouring canals. Shipbuilding and iron-founding are carried on, and there are manufactures of linseed cake, and agricultural and other machinery.
Gainsborough (Gegnesburh) was probably inhabited by the Saxons on account of the fishing in the Trent. The Saxon Chronicle states that in 1013 the Danish king Sweyn landed here and subjugated the inhabitants. Gainsborough, though not a chartered borough, was probably one by prescription, for mention is made of burghal tenure in 1280. The privilege of the return of writs was conferred on the lord of the manor, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, in 1323, and confirmed to Ralph de Percy in 1383. Mention is made in 1204 of a Wednesday market, but there is no extant grant before 1258, when Henry III. granted a Tuesday market to William de Valence, earl of Pembroke, who also obtained from Edward I. in 1291 licence for an annual fair on All Saints’ Day, and the seven preceding and eight following days. In 1243 Henry III. granted to John Talbot licence for a yearly fair on the eve, day and morrow of St James the Apostle. Queen Elizabeth in 1592 granted to Thomas Lord Burgh two fairs, to begin on Easter Monday and on the 9th of October, each lasting three days. Charles I. in 1635-1636 extended the duration of each to nine days. The Tuesday market is still held, and the fair days are Tuesday and Wednesday in Easter-week, and the Tuesday and Wednesday after the 20th of October.
See Adam Stark, History and Antiquities of Gainsburgh (London, 1843).
GAIRDNER, JAMES (1828- ), English historian, son of John Gairdner, M.D., was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of March 1828. Educated in his native city, he entered the Public Record Office in London in 1846, becoming assistant keeper of the public records (1859-1893). Gairdner’s valuable and painstaking contributions to English history relate chiefly to the reigns of Richard III., Henry VII. and Henry VIII. For the “Rolls Series” he edited Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII. (London, 1861-1863), and Memorials of Henry VII. (London, 1858); and he succeeded J.S. Brewer in editing the Letters and Papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII. (London, 1862-1905). He brought out the best edition of the Paston Letters (London, 1872-1875, and again 1896), for which he wrote a valuable introduction; and for the Camden Society he edited the Historical collections of a Citizen of London (London, 1876), and Three 15th-century Chronicles (London, 1880). His other works include excellent monographs on Richard III. (London, 1878, new and enlarged edition, Cambridge, 1898), and on Henry VII. (London, 1889, and subsequently); The Houses of Lancaster and York (London, 1874, and other editions); The English Church in the 16th century (London, 1902); Lollardy and the Reformation in England (1908); and contributions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Dictionary of National Biography, the Cambridge Modern History, and the English Historical Review. Gairdner received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Edinburgh in 1897, and was made a C.B. in 1900.