Antique French Hand Painted Miniature Portrait Plaque by Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788) England
The Blue Boy
Measure 5 1/2"in H x 4 1/2"in W with frame

Young Blue (c. 1770) is an oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough. Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is believed to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall (1752-1805), son of a wealthy merchant, although this has never been proven. It is a portrait, as well as a historical study of the costumes of young people in the 18th century, it is considered to have been a tribute by Gainsborough to Anthony Van Dyck, in particular, it is very close to the portrait of Charles II as a child. made by Van Dyck, and which Gainsborough surely discovered along with Rubens' painting in the collections of Wilton Castle that he visited with his friend and patron Philip Thicknesse. There are indications that Gainsborough had already painted something on the canvas before starting Young Blue. The painting is done on a canvas that is quite large for a portrait, measuring 177.8 cm high by 112.1 cm wide. It is located in the Huntington Library, in San Marino (California).

Biography: Thomas Gainsborough was born in 1727 in Sudbury, in the County of Suffolk, England. His mother was an accomplished flower painter. Gainsborough made little progress at grammer school, where he spent most of his time sketching. At the age of fifteen he was sent to London where he studied under the French engraver Gravelot. A few years later at Gravelot's instigation he was admitted into the Martin Lane Academy where he studied under the historical painter Francis Hayman. In 1745 he returned to Sudbury and Ipswich, and in 1760 rose to fame as a portrait painter in the fashionable resort town of Bath. Gainsborough joined the Royal Academy as a founding member and in 1774 he returned to London, where he became Reynold's major competitor. In 1783 he disagreed with the Council of the Royal Academy, withdrew his pictures and never exhibited there again. Gainsborough and Reynolds were rivals in their own time. Occasionally their portraits have a certain outer resemblance, largely because they both painted their subjects in the same fashionable costumes. But Gainsborough was as impulsive and unreasoning as Reynolds was cool and intellectual, so although they respected each other's work the two could scarcely have been friends. Gainsborough was the most sought-after artist of his time. His fees were large and his talents were incontestable. He was a master at striking an attractive and if necessary, flattering likeness. He was too individual a genius to inspire many followers. Before he was aware of the Roman or Dutch landscape painters, he had spent hours as a boy sketching his own Suffolk countryside. If it had not been necessary to paint portraits to make his living, he would gladly have devoted himself to landscape painting and he never lost his interest in this form of art. Although he claimed to prefer landscapes, he could not sell them. He painted so many portraits that he had become fed up with them. He longed for the freedom of painting landscapes, which he could do with quietness and ease. He did not paint on location, but composed in his studio using a kind of model. But when he died in 1788 his studio was cluttered with unsold landscapes.

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