Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
The Blue Boy
Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727–1788) iconic painting was first shown in public in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1770 as A Portrait of a Young Gentleman, where it received high acclaim, and by 1798 it was being called “The Blue Boy”—a nickname that stuck.
Henry and Arabella Huntington purchased The Blue Boy in 1921 for $728,000, at that time the highest price ever paid for a painting. By bringing a British treasure to the United States, the Huntingtons imbued an already well-known image with even greater notoriety on both sides of the Atlantic. But beyond its cultural significance, the painting is considered a masterpiece of artistic virtuosity. Gainsborough’s command of color and mastery of brushwork are on full display in the painting, made even more apparent as a result of the conservation and restoration of this priceless portrait as part of “Project Blue Boy.”
Restoration of The Blue Boy
In 2017, conservators began a preliminary analysis of The Blue Boy using a range of imaging techniques. This was followed in 2018 by “Project Blue Boy,” a restoration project that offered visitors a glimpse into the technical process of conserving one of Gainsborough’s finest works. During the public phase of the project, visitors were able to interact with The Huntington’s senior paintings conservator Christina O’Connell while she worked to conserve the painting in-gallery. When the painting returned to the Thornton Portrait Gallery after final inpainting, varnish, and framing adjustments, the virtuosity of Gainsborough’s brushwork and the brilliance of his palette were more apparent than ever.
