The Painter's Daughters chasing a Butterfly
Thomas Gainsborough·1756
Historical Context
The Painter’s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, painted around 1756 and held at the National Gallery, is one of Gainsborough’s most tender and spontaneous compositions. His daughters Mary and Margaret are shown in a garden, reaching for a butterfly in a moment of childish delight. The painting’s unfinished quality—parts of the canvas are barely sketched—gives it a freshness and immediacy that distinguish it from formal portrait commissions. Gainsborough painted his daughters repeatedly throughout their childhood, and these family paintings reveal a more intimate and emotionally direct side of the artist than his commissioned portraits. The butterfly’s fragility may symbolize the transience of childhood innocence.
Technical Analysis
Gainsborough's early handling is more detailed and precise than his later style, with careful rendering of the girls' features and clothing. The woodland setting already shows his instinct for integrating figures with landscape in a unified atmospheric composition.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the sense of movement captured: the girls are mid-chase, and Gainsborough conveys actual physical energy — rare in an era when children in portraits were usually posed as small adults.
- ◆Look at the careful early handling: edges are crisper than his later style, the brushwork more deliberate, yet there is an ease here born of genuine affection.
- ◆Observe the woodland setting: the natural, leafy background is not a formal garden but a real outdoor space where children actually play.
- ◆Find the difference between the two girls' expressions: one leads the pursuit, the other hangs back slightly — individual personalities, not generic child types.
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