The Hon. Anne (Batson) Fane

This portrait demonstrates the dazzling brushwork that Gainsborough brought to even the most routine commissions. Though its basic composition is one the artist repeated many times, the vigorous brushstrokes seem spontaneous. He devotes particular attention to capturing the complex visual effects produced by the layers of gossamer-thin fabric in the figure’s dress, where brisk, jagged strokes of white paint dance above darker violet-gray to imitate the look of a rich silk undersleeve beneath transparent white gauze.