Gainsborough 24 October 2002 - 19 January 2002

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Sir Edward Turner, Bart
Sir Edward Turner, Bart exhibited 1762
Oil on canvas
Wolverhampton Art Gallery		 Sir Edward Turner, Bart
This, in many ways unremarkable, portrait shows the sitter in the standard, cross-legged pose indicating gentlemanly ease. What is extraordinary is his suit. Made of French silk, embellished with brocading, this shows the kind of extravagance not often found in a portrait of a respectable gentleman. It hints at the excesses often noticed in the behaviour of visitors to Bath. Turner, who had recently come into a fortune, clearly wanted to be commemorated in all his splendour.

Gainsborough Dupont
This portrait of Gainsborough's nephew is thought to have been painted when he was eighteen, the year he became Gainsborough's studio assistant. Gainsborough has used the portrait as an exercise in painting in the manner of Van Dyck: he presents Dupont in the manner of a young lord at the court of Charles I, with tousled shoulder-length hair, and a seventeenth-century style lace collar.		 Gainsborough Dupont
Gainsborough Dupont about 1772
Oil on canvas
Tate