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Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Thomas Gainsborough

Portrait of Sarah Buxton

ca. 1776 - 1777
Oil on canvas.
110 x 87 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
153
(
1983.21
)
ROOM 24
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  

Together with Joshua Reynolds Thomas Gainsborough was one of the great 18th-century British portraitists. A certain rivalry existed between the two painters, which became more pronounced after Gainsborough moved to London in 1774. It would appear that he first trained in Suffolk then completed his studies in the capital with Hubert François Gravelot and Francis Hayman, establishing himself as a portrait painter in his native city of Sudbury in 1748. Despite this, Gainsborough’s true metier was landscape painting and his earliest known works are views that recall those of the Dutch 17th-century landscape painters, inspired by the works of Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Wijnants. At this period he also painted small-format portraits in which the sitters are located in outdoor, rural settings in a natural, simple manner. In order to expand his clientele Gainsborough moved to Ipswich in 1752 and about 1759 settled in the elegant spa town of Bath where his portraits underwent a transformation. From that point on his sitters are depicted life-size and full-length in elegant poses, wearing fashionable dress and set against landscape backgrounds. In 1774 Gainsborough decided to move to London where he remained until his death in 1788. After his death Reynolds made him the subject of one of his “Discourses” in which he described with great clarity his rival’s most important qualities, considering him outstanding in the genre of landscape, which was hitherto considered of lesser merit.

The present Portrait of Sarah Buxton entered the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in 1983 and was displayed at Daylesford House, the UK home of Baron and Baroness Thyssen. Its provenance is known almost in its entirety since Gainsborough painted it in 1776–77 following his move to London. The canvas remained with the descendents of the Dumbleton family, Sarah Buxton’s married name, until 1918, when it was sold at auction. It was subsequently in private collections in the US and France and in the Kimbell Art Museum before it was acquired for the Collection from Newhouse Galleries, New York, in May 1983.

Sarah Buxton was the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Buxton of Bellfield and the portrait was executed prior to her marriage to Charles Dumbleton in June 1777. The mother of four children, Sarah died on 5 December 1783.

The canvas is a fragment of a larger composition that was cut up after it was damaged in a fire. Gainsborough presents the young woman wearing an elegant pale blue gown, fashionably dressed and coiffured. She poses in a simple manner, peacefully seated in the corner of a garden with large trees behind her, against which her figure stands out, particularly the pale flesh tones. The canvas reveals Gainsborough’s distinctive technique in which the soft textures of the clothes are created through lengthy brushstrokes. The sitter’s long face is emphasised by the high and elaborate hairstyle and is painted with compact strokes and green nuances in the shadowing. Another fragment of this work depicts a dog at the sitter’s feet on the left, looking up at her.1 The background was undoubtedly a landscape of which only a small area is now visible.

Mar Borobia

18th Centurys. XVIII - Pintura británicaPaintingOilcanvas
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Portrait of Sarah Buxton. Thomas Gainsborough
Portrait of Sarah Buxton
Thomas Gainsborough

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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Portrait of Sarah Buxton. Thomas Gainsborough
Portrait of Sarah Buxton
Thomas Gainsborough

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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