Thomas Gainsborough | Rococo / Romantic painter

Tate, Britain / The portrait and landscape painter Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)🎨 was born at Sudbury, Suffolk, the fifth son of a cloth merchant.

He was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to a London silversmith, and was taught by Hubert Gravelot, a French book-illustrator.

By 1745 he had established his own studio in London. He married Margaret Burr in 1746, and by 1748 had taken up residence in Suffolk.

He moved to Ipswich in 1752, and settled at Bath as a portraitist in 1759.

He took as an apprentice his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont (1754-97) in 1772.

Thomas Gainsborough | The Mall in St. James Park, 1783 | Art in Detail

National Gallery, London / Thomas Gainsborough was, with Reynolds (his main rival), the leading portrait painter in England in the later 18th century. The feathery brushwork of his mature work and rich sense of colour contribute to the enduring popularity of his portraits. Unlike Reynolds, he avoids references to Italian Renaissance art or the Antique, and shows his sitters in fashionable contemporary dress.

Stanhope Forbes | Plein Air /Genre painter

Tate, London / Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857-1947) Painter of realistic genre, frequently in the open air, historical subjects and landscapes. Born 18 November 1857 in Dublin, son of a railway manager and a French mother. Studied at Lambeth School of Art, the R.A. Schools 1874-1878 and for two years in Paris under Bonnat. Influenced by Bastien-Lepage and painted in Brittany with La Thangue 1880. Settled in Cornwall 1884 and became a leading member of the ‘Newlyn School’.

Archibald Thorburn | Naturalism wildlife painter

Archibald Thorburn (31 May 1860 - 9 October 1935 Hascombe, Surrey) was a Scottish /British animal painter and bird illustrator, painting mostly in watercolour.

He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his favourite haunt being the Forest of Gaick near Kingussie in Invernesshire. His widely reproduced images of British wildlife, with their evocative and dramatic backgrounds, are enjoyed as much today as they were by sportsmen and birdlovers of a century ago.

Peacock and Peacock Butterfly

Rembrandt | Self-Portrait, 1658

Of the many self-portraits Rembrandt painted over a lifetime, this is perhaps the greatest, not only for its poignant revelations of the self, but for his sure handling of paint.

The initial effect on viewers is daunting, as though they are confronting an ill-tempered monarch.

The strange costume he wears is timeless.

In place of a crown, he wears a large velvet artist's beret.

Rembrandt | Self-Portrait, 1658 | Frick Collection, New York