{"product_id":"gainsborough-s-family-album","title":"Gainsborough’s Family Album","description":"Despite this famous protestation in  a letter to his friend William Jackson, Gainsborough was  clearly prepared to make an exception when it came to making portraits of his own family and  himself. This book,  and the major exhibition it accompanies, features a dozen portraits of his  daughters Mary and Margaret, the same number of himself and his wife Margaret (though,  perhaps tellingly, only one of the couple together), as well as works depicting four of his five  siblings,  his handsome nephew Gainsborough Dupont (who became his studio assistant) , an  aunt and uncle, several in - laws and - last, but not least  - his beloved dogs, Tristram and Fox.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpanning more than four decades,  Gainsborough's family portraits chart the period from the  mid - 1740s, when he plied his trade in his native Suffolk , through his time in Bath ( 1758 - 74 ), when he established hi mself with a rich and  fashionable clientele , to his most successful  latter  years at his luxuriously appointed studio in London's We st End. Alongside this story of a  provincial 18th - century artist's rise  to fame and fortune runs a more private narrative, ab out  the role of portraiture in the promotion of family values, at a time when these were assuming  a recogni s ably modern form.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the first of three introductory essays, David  H.  Solkin writes on Gainsborough himself,  placing his family portraits in the  context of earlier practice   - including  that of the Flemish  master Peter Paul Rubens and British portraitists from  Mary Beale to Joseph Highmore . Ann Bermingham explores Gainsborough's portraits of his daughters, with particular reference to  two finished double portraits painted seven years apart and the tragic story arising from them. Susan Sloman discusses Margaret's  role as her husband's business manager,  its  effect on the  family dynamic and hence the visual representation of its members.","brand":"National Portrait Gallery Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42664514813988,"sku":"9781855147904","price":65.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0725\/9734\/0196\/files\/9781855147904.jpg?v=1777360827","url":"https:\/\/thamesandhudson.com.au\/products\/gainsborough-s-family-album","provider":"Thames \u0026 Hudson Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}