GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS, one of the most eminent English landscape-painters, was b. at Sudbury, in the co. of Suffolk, 1727, and early displayed a decided talent for painting. "Nature," it has been said, "was his teacher, and the woods his academy, where he would pass his mornings alone, making sketches of an old tree, a marsh, brook, a few cattle, a shepherd and his flock, or any other objects that casually came in view." At 14 years of age, he was sent to London, where he was for sonic time with Mr. Grave lot, the engraver, and afterwards with Hayman. At 19, he married, and set up in Bath as a portrait-painter, in which capacity he was veDy successful; but his genius first found adequate expression in the delineation of the rich and quiet scenery of his native coun try, and to this he mainly devoted himself after leaving Bath for London, in 1774. On the institution of the royal academy, G. was chosen one of the first members, but never took much interest in its proceedings. He died Aug. 2, 1788, of a cancer in the neck.
His last words exhibited more the enthusiasm of the painter than the logic of the theo logian: "We are all going to heaven, and Vandyck is of the party." G.'s portraits are remarkable as likenesses," but are not carefully finished, The best are those of the royal family, of Abel the composer, and Quin the actor. His fame, however, rests chiefly on his landscapes; in these, he shows himself a faithful adherent to nature, as he knew it in his own beautiful island. He is, in fact, to be regarded as the first truly original English j5ainter, and, in the opinion of sir Joshua Reynolds, fit to be the head of an English school. Among his finest productions are "The Shepherd's Boy," "The Fight between Little Boys and Dogs," " The 'Seashore," and "The Wood man in the Storm." His most celebrated picture is "The Blue Boy," in the Devonshire gallery.