Enlightenment

Thomas Gainsborough

Mr and Mrs Andrews

about 1750

Oil on canvas, 27 1/2 × 47 in. The National Gallery, London

A landowner and his wife set beside open farmland: the conversation piece as a portrait of property.

Look at

• The couple are pressed into the left half; the rest of the long canvas is open farmland under a cloudy sky.
• The sky-blue silk of the dress is the strongest colour, answered by the gold of the wheat sheaves at right.
• The land recedes in clear bands of stubble, fenced pasture, trees and low hills, each set down in small, precise touches.

• Robert Andrews owned nearly 3,000 acres; a patch on his wife's lap is left unpainted, possibly for something to be added later.
• The view looks east over the Stour valley; the picture stayed with the family until 1960, when the National Gallery bought it.

Conversation piece

a small group portrait of family or friends in an informal setting.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain