William Gower (c.1702–1777), Provost of Worcester College (1736–1777)

The portrait of William Gower, Provost of Worcester College Oxford, attributed to Gainsborough at around 1728, presents one of the most extraordinary documents in British art history if the attribution is sustained: it would represent work by a painter approximately eleven or twelve years old. Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, around 1727, and his precocious artistic talent was recognized early — family tradition holds that he was drawing and painting remarkable landscapes by his early teens. The Worcester College provenance suggests the portrait was made for the college's own collection, where it would have documented the Provost for institutional memory. Even if the attribution requires revision, the work's connection to Gainsborough's earliest documented period places it at the origin of one of the most extraordinary careers in eighteenth-century British art. Worcester College's own history as a foundation that incorporated the medieval Gloucester College buildings gave it a distinctive character among Oxford colleges, and Gower's long provostship from 1736 to 1777 makes him a significant figure in the college's Georgian history. The portrait, whatever its precise attribution, preserves the institutional memory of an Oxford figure through the emerging talent of a painter who would eventually become one of the most celebrated in Britain.

The academic portrait follows institutional conventions, with the provost's robes providing a formal framework. The handling suggests Gainsborough's mature Suffolk or early Bath manner rather than the work of a one-year-old infant, confirming that the given date must be erroneous.