Gainsborough: A Portrait in Bloomington, MN

** Selected as a Book of the Year in
The Times
,
Sunday Times
and
Observer **
'Compulsively readable - the pages seem to turn themselves' John Carey,
'B
rings one of the very greatest [artists] vividly to life'
Literary Review
Thomas Gainsborough lived as if electricity shot through his sinews and crackled at his finger ends. He was a gentle and empathetic family man, but had a shockingly loose, libidinous manner and a volatility that could lead him to slash his paintings.
James Hamilton reveals the artist in his many contexts: the talented Suffolk lad, transported to the heights of fashion; the rake-on-the-make in London, learning his craft in the shadow of Hogarth; the society-portrait painter in Bath and London who earned huge sums by charming the right people into his studio. With fresh insights into original sources,
Gainsborough: A Portrait
transforms our understanding of this fascinating man, and enlightens the century that bore him.