Best-Loved Paintings: The Blue
Boy and Pinkie
by Robert R. Wark
From the Introduction
Ever since the arrival of Pinkie in the Huntington collection
the painting has been closely linked with The Blue Boy; this
association is understandable, for the paintings form in many
respects a natural pair. And yet the differences are far more
imposing and fundamental than the similarities. The Blue
Boy is a magnificent act of homage on Gainsborough's part
to the artist he admired above all others, the seventeenth-century
portraitist Van Dyck. Gainsborough painted it apparently for
his own pleasure, unimpeded by the restrictions that would normally
hedge about a regular portrait commission. The measure of Lawrence's
achievement in Pinkie is found precisely in the converse
of this situation. There is nothing in the record to suggest
that from his point of view the painting began as anything more
than a routine portrait commission, involving a sitter of no
particular importance, with whom he had no personal connection.
Possibly the most remarkable thing about the painting is that
from these distinctly unexceptional circumstances Lawrence should
produce such a vital and fresh portrait that has rightly taken
its place in the popular estimation as embodying the very spirit
of English childhood.
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) was born in the small town
of Sudbury in the eastern part of England. Little is known about
his boyhood and early artistic training. While still in his teens,
he spent several years in London working with the French artist
Hubert Gravelot; he must also have come into contact at that time
with the English painter Francis Hayman. Gainsborough returned
to his native Suffolk in the late 1740s and soon settled at Ipswich.
He there painted attractive small-scale, full-length portraits
(such as the Huntington Gallery's A Lady with a Spaniel)
and developed his interest in landscape, particularly under the
influence of Dutch seventeenth-century artists. He gained fame
as a portraitist in the 1760s and moved to London in 1774. Thenceforth
until his death he was universally recognized as sharing with
Sir Joshua Reynolds the position of foremost British portraitist
of his day.
Born the son of an innkeeper in the port town of Bristol, Sir
Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) gained early renown for his skill
in making pencil portraits of elegant travelers at his father's
coaching inn, The Black Bear, at Devizes. Apart from casual instruction,
he was essentially self-taught. The boy's precocious talent for
draftsmanship became a crucial source of income when his father
was declared bankrupt in 1779. The family's move to Bath the following
year provided Lawrence with a sophisticated clientele and the
means of educating his taste. He assiduously copied Old Master
pictures displayed in the city's print shops and private collections,
and essayed his own Grand Master subject pictures in imitation
of them. In 1787 Lawrence settled permanently in London and gained
importance as a portrait painter. In 1820 he was elected President
of the Royal Academy.
Copyright © 2003, Huntington Library Press.
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