Thomas Gainsborough “Sketch of a Seated Woman” Lithograph



Thomas Gainsborough (christened May 14, 1727 — August 2, 1788) was one of the most famous portrait and landscape painters’ etcher and draughtsman of 18th century Britain.

Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. His father was a weaver involved with the wool trade. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let him go to London to study art in 1740.

In London he first trained under engraver Hubert Gravelot but eventually became associated with William Hogarth and his school. Year later he would work in executing a small numbers of original etched work of landscape studies.

One of his mentors was Francis Hayman. In those years he contributed to the decoration of what is now the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children and the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens.

In the 1740s, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, who settled a £200 annuity on the couple. The artist’s work, then mainly composed of landscape paintings, was not selling very well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748—1749 and concentrated on the painting of portraits.

In 1752, he and his family, now including two daughters, moved to Ipswich. Commissions for personal portraits increased, but his clientele included mainly local merchants and squires. He had to borrow against his wife’s annuity.

Thomas Gainsborough “Sketch of a Seated Woman” Lithograph. Published by Richard Lane, with English Portraits Sketches from a series of many of the artists sketches owned by Gainsborough Grandson, “Lithographic Imitations of Sketches of Modern Masters”. Produced by a very recent invention of lithography. This rare and beautiful work is 6.50 by 5.75 inches, unsigned and in good clean condition.

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