Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-1788), an English painter. Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, and died in London. His father was a wool manufacturer. Young Gainsborough went up to London in his fifteenth year, where he studied engraving and drawing. In 1745 he returned to Sudbury and set up a studio as a portrait painter. Fifteen years later Gainsborough removed to Bath, then a fashionable resort, where he won reputation as a painter of portraits. In 1774 he left Bath for London. Gainsborough was one of the original thirty-six members of the Royal Academy. He painted over two hundred portraits. Many of these are preserved in the galleries of Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. He painted eight portraits of George III. Among the notables who sat for him were Mrs. Siddons, the Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke of Argyll, George III, the Prince of Wales, afterward crowned George IV, Lord Cornwallis, Pitt, Blackstone, Clive, Burke, and Benjamin Franklin. Some of his noted pictures other than portraits are The Market Cart, The Brook, Rustic Children, Cows in thc Meadow, The Harvest Wagon, and Gainsborough's Forest. The "Gainsborough hat," a broad article of headwear worn by the beauties of the day, is as famous as the "Vandyke collar." A strong friendship existed between Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was marred, however, by an estrangement lasting several years.

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