The blue boy de thomas gainsborough biography

The Painting

The Blue Boy is a large painting about 48 inches (120 cm) wide and 70 inches (180 cm) tall. The boy’s shoes are a light brown color, also with an elaborate blue ribbon adorning the top.

The shoes worn by The Blue Boy (c.

Gainsborough's painting also encouraged pop artist Robert Rauschenberg to pick up a brush and start painting.

Gainsborough’s art style has been described as the beginning style that catalyzed Impressionism.

Self-portrait (c. By proving that blue could successfully dominate a composition, Gainsborough opened new possibilities for color use that influenced generations of portrait painters. The director of the National Gallery at the time, Charles Holmes, wrote his farewell to The Blue Boy with a note scribbled on its back that read, “Au Revoir, C.H.”

The painting made its way to the Huntington estate in Southern California to add to the impressive collection.

It became immensely popular and, by 1798, it was known by its nickname, The Blue Boy. However, it is unlikely that Gainsborough’s motivation was to contradict Reynold’s discourse, as The Blue Boy came eight years after Gainsborough completed this painting. Nonetheless, Gainsborough has left us with his unique style that would continue to inspire other art movements throughout the years, namely Impressionism.

In fact, The Blue Boy is quite the opposite, with blue clearly dominating the entire portrait.

The Painting's Journey over Time

The portrait was unveiled in 1770 at the Royal Academy and, as Gainsborough had hoped, it enjoyed a rave reception at this prestigious newly-opened venue. Your support helps us to sustain DailyArt Magazine and keep it running.

In 1921 it was bought by Henry Edwards Huntington, who was from Los Angeles. Interestingly, the story of this iconic work of art by Thomas Gainsborough is as colourful and lavish as the subject's blue pantaloons!

The Blue Boy is no Royal

Gainsborough painted The Blue Boy, an oil on canvas, around 1770 and drew inspiration from the 17th century Flemish painter Van Dyck and his Portrait of Charles, Lord Strange.

At heart, Gainsborough was far more inclined to paint landscapes and once famously admitted that he only painted portraits for the income they brought him but landscapes were his real love.

Despite giving the Blue Boy a regal yet relaxed appearance, the young lad in the painting is not a member of the royal family. This description has often been referenced against Gainsborough’s style, which evidently employs more cool colors.

This description has been used as a possible source of inspiration for why Gainsborough painted The Blue Boy, but he painted it almost eight years before Reynolds’ “Discourse”, so the accuracy of this motivation has been widely questioned.

It is evident that Gainsborough’s primary color is blue in this painting, and he created a contrasting effect with the darker colors in the background, which appear to consist of greens and browns, with the lighter and cooler colors of the blue in the foreground.

Numerous conservationists have suggested the painting should not travel.

The president of Huntington, Karen R. Lawrence stated, “This is an unprecedented loan, one which we considered very carefully. 1770). The blue costume isn’t painted with a single blue pigment but combines multiple blues, along with subtle additions of other colors, to create the complex, luminous effect that makes the painting so compelling.

This equals a staggering $8.5 million today. Unlike Reynolds, who was a disciplined advocate of academic styles, Gainsborough remained removed from any academic decorum. Even the boy’s brown hair and pink flesh tones are calculated to create harmonious relationships with the challenging blue costume.

The pose and expression of the Blue Boy contribute to the painting’s success as both portrait and artistic statement.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the portrait fell into the hands of the well-known portrait artist, John Hoppner, but in 1809 it was sold to Earl Grosvenor. It will be exhibited at the National Gallery again on 25 January 2022. 

There are numerous potential risks involved in this undertaking, especially due to the changes in temperature and exposure to many elements when the painting will travel to the United Kingdom.

This caused an English outcry among many who were sickened by the portrait leaving its homeland.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that Huntington purchased the portrait for $728,800 (£182,200), which was a record breaking price at the time.