Gainsborough, Thomas

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) is remembered as one of the most celebrated potraits and landscape painters of the 18th century. He was a great observer of people and of te natural world and his style is more down to his skill than to the formalised application of academic rules.
In the Potrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews we can see in the background the beautiful English countryside: also the landscape is portrayed, with the sheaves of corn just harvested, with the sheep grazing, with the order and the prosperity imposed on nature by the will of the landowners. The couple are portrayed in the foreground with relaxed movements – especially for the male figure – and with clothes definitely not up to Court reception, but certainly good for life in a country house.

The two protagonists live in tune with nature, which shows itself in a harmonious and tranquil beauty, in a total poetical transfiguration of reality. The different shades of colour give the impression of shining surfaces with soft luminosity. The drawing is elegant and defines the shapes with levity. Gainsborough has taken from the Dutch landscape artists the care for detail, the modulation of the colours and the right balance between the different components of the painting.
There is indeed in this work a correct balance in the composition between the panorama in the distance and the couple in the foreground.