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Man with a Book Seated in a Landscape
ca. 174724 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
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]
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
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- The Bicentenary Memorial Exhibition of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. Ipswich Museum 10/7/1927 - 11/5/1927
- Old Master Paintings from a Private Collector 10/4/1957 - 11/3/1957
- Treasures from Rochester Memorial Art Gallery 4/14/1977 - 5/28/1977
- 18th Century Prints and Drawings 10/7/1977 - 10/30/1977
- Masterpieces for Rochester: Acquisitions Since 1975 11/24/1978 - 1/7/1979
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Susan Dodge Peters, ed. Memorial Art Gallery: An Introduction to the Collection. New York, New York: Memorial Art Gallery in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1988.
- Article Title: Acquisition. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 41, Issue Number: 5. Issue Date: January 1976.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Denys Sutton. Treasures from Rochester: Exhibited at Wildenstein Galleries, New York, April 14-May 28, 1977: Summary Catalogue. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1977.
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Art Journal. New York, New York: College Art Association of America Volume Number: XXXV, Issue Number: 4. Issue Date: Summer 1976.
- Elizabeth Brayer. Magnum Opus: The Story of the Memorial Art Gallery, 1913-1988. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1988.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Hugh Belsey. Thomas Gainsborough: A Country Life. London, England: Prestel, 2002.
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Selections from the Exhibition of Old Master Paintings. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1957.
- Article Scope: Entry. Ellis Waterhouse. Gainsborough. London, England: E. Hulton, 1958.
- Article Scope: Entry. The Bicentenary Memorial Exhibition of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.: Illustrating the Various Periods of his Work, also the Work of his Antecedents and Contemporaries and his Influence on the Art of his Own and Later Times. Ipswich (Suffolk), UK: W.S. Cowell, 1927.
- City Newspaper. Rochester, NY
- John D. Morse. Old master paintings in North America: over 3000 masterpieces by 50 great artists . New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1979.
- Article Scope: Catalogue Raisonné Entry. Hugh Belsey. Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. Volume Number: 2
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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.
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.