RKD STUDIES

Gainsborough spent his childhood years drawing the landscape around his hometown of Sudbury, Suffolk, and producing small ‘heads’ – graphic or painted portraits of family and friends.¹ We know that he was sent to London in 1740, aged 12, to pursue ‘some Light Handy Craft Trade’, financed by a bequest from his late uncle and namesake Thomas Gainsborough (1678–1739).² We do not know what that light handicraft trade might have been, if indeed there was a formal apprenticeship. The bequest (£40 maximum) from uncle Thomas would not have sufficed for a proper apprenticeship to a painter.³ It cost on average £50–£100 to be apprenticed to a ‘painter, properly so’; £10–£20 for a painter of drapery, coats of arm and coaches respectively; £5–£10 for a painter of houses, floor cloths, fans and ships respectively.⁴ It was fortunate then for the young Gainsborough that in London in the 1740s the absence of formal training did not prevent anyone from setting up as a ‘painter, properly so’. We have William Hogarth‘s (1697–1764) transition from a qualified silver engraver to an untrained but successful painter as evidence of how fluid things could be for artists in London. This was partly because the powers of the London Painter-Stainers’ Company had become negligible outside the trades of painting by the early 18th century. The Company traditionally regulated (or tried to regulate) the art and trades of painting within a four-mile compass of the City of London, with certain exceptional areas. One of its rights was the impromptu search of artists’ premises to check on the use of materials and the treatment of apprentices. The last recorded search was in 1708.⁵

We know from the published obituaries for Gainsborough that soon after his arrival in London the young boy was introduced to Hubert François Gravelot (1699-1773), the French draughtsman, engraver and designer.⁶ In Gravelot’s studio Gainsborough participated in drawing ‘the [Rococo] ornaments which decorate the illustrious heads, so admirably engraved by Houbraken’ [1-2].⁷ Once engraved by Jacob Houbraken (1698–1780) in Amsterdam, these designs, complete with portraits by other hands, eventually formed Birch’s The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, published by George Knapton (1698–1778); it was one of the few books in Gainsborough’s possession when he died.⁸ We know from the obituary written by Gainsborough’s close friend and champion, Sir Henry Bate-Dudley (1745–1824), that Gravelot introduced the young boy to the St Martin’s Lane Academy, Hogarth’s evening academy for drawing and painting from the life.⁹ There Gainsborough would have met another of the directors, Francis Hayman, painter of portraits, conversation pieces and country-house views, as well as scenery in theatres and in the supper boxes at Vauxhall Gardens. Although later claims that Gainsborough was a pupil of Hayman’s cannot be substantiated, it is clear from stylistic comparison that the young Gainsborough worked with Hayman and gleaned a good deal from his style.¹⁰ They knew each other well enough for there to be at least one documented instance of Hayman doing the portrait elements in a painting before sending it to Gainsborough for insertion of the landscape background.¹¹

1
George Knapton and Hubert François Gravelot after Gottfried Kneller
Portrait of Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton (1648-1715), in or before 1744
Oil paint on paper
Oxford (England), Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

2
Jacob Houbraken after George Knapton and after Hubert François Gravelot published by John & Paul Knapton
Portrait of Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton (1648-1715), dated 1744
Engraving
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-OB-48.227