Thomas Gainsborough was a master of English school of painting. He was a
portraitist and a landscape painter. He was born in Sudbury in 1727 and
was the son of a merchant. His father sent him to London to study arts.
He spent 8 years working and studying in London. There he got
acquainted with the Flemish traditional school of painting. In his
portraits green and blue colours predominate. He was the first British
painter who painted British native countryside. He painted a wagon of
hay, a poor cottage, poor peasants. His works of landscape contain much
poetry and music. His best works are "Blue Boy”, "The Portrait of the
Duchess of Beaufort”, "Sara Siddons” and others. The particular
discovery of Gainsborough was the creation of a form of art in which the
characters and the background form a single unity. The landscape is not
kept in the background, but in most cases man and nature are fused in a
single whole through the atmospheric harmony of mood. Gainsborough
emphasized that the natural background for his characters should be
nature itself. His works, painted in clear and transparent tones, had a
considerable influence on the artists of the English school. He was in
advance of his time. His art became a forerunner of the Romantic
Movement.
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