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Portrait of Robert Thistlethwayte of Norman Court, standing full-length, wearing a red coat, green waistcoat and buff breaches, holding a can, leaning against a fence, a spaniel by his side
Thomas Gainsborough·1778
Historical Context
Portrait of Robert Thistlethwayte of Norman Court from 1778 in the National Galleries of Scotland is a full-length portrait of a Hampshire country gentleman in the relaxed outdoor manner that characterized Gainsborough's approach to landed gentry subjects in his London period. Thistlethwayte is shown in the red coat, green waistcoat, and buff breeches of informal country dress, leaning against a fence with a spaniel — a composition that simultaneously asserts his aristocratic status through the scale and formality of the format and relaxes it through the informal dress and the sporting dog. The pendant portrait of his wife Selina Thistlethwayte is in the same Edinburgh collection, making the National Galleries of Scotland an unusually complete source for the study of this particular commission.
Technical Analysis
This work demonstrates Thomas Gainsborough's command of Romantic-period painting techniques.
Look Closer
- ◆Look for the spaniel at Thistlethwayte's feet — the sporting dog identifies him as a landed Hampshire gentleman, and Gainsborough integrates figure, animal, and landscape to paint a complete portrait of Georgian country gentleman's life.
- ◆Notice the red coat: Gainsborough renders it with confident brushwork that distinguishes the sitter's presence against the landscape behind him.
- ◆Observe the full-length standing format: this allows Gainsborough his greatest strength — integrating a standing figure with the natural landscape at full scale.
- ◆Find the leaning posture against the fence: the informal, country-ease pose is entirely characteristic of how Gainsborough painted the landed gentry in their own environment.
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