Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.

Probably Mrs Philip Thickness (1737-1824);
with Allen's Map and Print Warehouse, Dublin;
Lady Emily Fitzwalter (d. 1951)
thence by descent to the present owner

Until its emergence from an Irish private collection earlier this year, the present drawing had escaped the notice of scholars. Unusually for Gainsborough, he has both signed and dated the drawing. 1784 was a controversial year for the 57 year old artist. Firmly established as one of London’s leading painters, he caused a sensation when, on the eve of the opening of the Royal Academy’s exhibition, he withdrew his entire entry of pictures because they were ‘hung above the line.’ He vowed never to contribute to the Academy again, and from that year forward, he exhibited privately at his residence 80 Schomberg House.

The inscription on this drawing, written in an eighteenth century hand, reveals that Gainsborough presented it to a ‘Miss Thickness’. This is likely to refer to Mrs Philip Thickness, née Anne Ford, who was the second wife of Gainsborough’s old friend and first biographer Philip Thickness. Anne was a talented musician and somewhat of a celebrity figure in Bath society.  In 1760, two years before she married Philip, Gainsborough painted her in a dramatic full-length portrait. That work is now in the Cincinnati Art Museum and is acknowledged as one of Gainsborough’s great masterpieces. We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for his help in cataloguing this lot.