Skip to Content

Man with a Book Seated in a Landscape

Showing 1 of 1


  FILTER RESULTS

Man with a Book Seated in a Landscape

ca. 1747
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)

Thomas R. A. Gainsborough
England (Sudbury, England, 1727 - 1788, London)

Object Type: Painting
Medium and Support: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Fred W. Geib
Accession Number: 1975.115
Location: Currently on view
Link to this object

Although the name of the sitter is unknown, Gainsborough gives the viewer several clues that help place him in a social context: the gentleman holds a book, indicating he is learned; he leans on a stone pillar, with a pastoral landscape and a river behind him, suggesting he is a landowner.

This portrait, made when Gainsborough was in his mid-20s, is a typical example of his early style.

[Gallery label text, 2008]

Provenance
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, May 20, 1927, as lot 78 [under "Different Properties"]; bought at that sale by Percy Moore Turner, London (dealer); Louis Henry Hayter (1865-1953), Chatham House, Somerset, England; his sale, Sotheby's, London, April 15, 1953, as lot 39; purchased at that sale by Arthur Tooth, London (dealer); Mortimer Brandt, New York (dealer); Dr. and Mrs. Fred W. Geib, Rochester; given to the Gallery in 1975

Keywords Click a term to view the records with the same keyword

Additional Images Click an image to view a larger version

Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:

Portfolio List Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:

Web Links See links to web pages and lesson plans
About Face: Copley’s Portrait of a Colonial Silversmith About Face: Copley’s Portrait of a Colonial Silversmith explores the lives and work of two artists within colonial Boston prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution: painter John Singleton Copley and silversmith Nathaniel Hurd. In addition to focusing upon paintings by Copley and silver pieces by Hurd, these works and other objects put into context the daily life of colonial Boston. Primary source documents (art works, objects, and written texts) provide students with a view of the experiences of men and women who were alive around the time of the American Revolution.

Students will develop critical looking and thinking skills as they gain experience in interpreting historical documents; analyze different interpretations of a key political turning point in American history through the study of visual and written documents of the Boston Massacre; explore important social issues through portraiture.; and evaluate the colonial American economy through primary source documents, like Nathaniel Hurd’s Table of Conversions and a colonial coin.


Your current search criteria is: Object is "Man with a Book Seated in a Landscape".

View current selection of records as:
CDWA Lite XML LIDO XML VRA Core 4 MODS XML Objects JSON