Framed oil painting: Thomas Bowlby (1721-1795) by Thomas Gainsborough, oil on canvas 1766
Key information
Museum number
2010.1
Object
Framed oil painting: Thomas Bowlby (1721-1795) by Thomas Gainsborough, oil on canvas 1766
Gallery label
Thomas Bowlby (1721-1795)
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Oil on canvas, 1766
This recently rediscovered portrait is typical of Gainsborough’s work in Bath. The sitter was a civil servant and later MP for Launceston. Lord North described him as ‘a man of as upright a heart, as clear a head, and as honest a mind as anyone living’.
Gainsborough painted both Bowlby and his wife when they visited Bath. He has captured Bowlby’s amiable character beautifully, as well as the extravagant details of his dress with its gold braid and minute embroidery.
2010.1
Bequest of the Bowlby Family, 2010
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Oil on canvas, 1766
This recently rediscovered portrait is typical of Gainsborough’s work in Bath. The sitter was a civil servant and later MP for Launceston. Lord North described him as ‘a man of as upright a heart, as clear a head, and as honest a mind as anyone living’.
Gainsborough painted both Bowlby and his wife when they visited Bath. He has captured Bowlby’s amiable character beautifully, as well as the extravagant details of his dress with its gold braid and minute embroidery.
2010.1
Bequest of the Bowlby Family, 2010
On display?
Yes
