Gainsborough Pop

The work of the English artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) lives on not only in museums and stately homes but in reproductions and reflections of all kinds--ceramics, cigarette cards, biscuit tins, fans, hats, films, and cartoons.

These incidental objects and ephemera are part of the history of Gainsborough’s art and influence. Naturally, his most iconic works feature strongly--The Blue Boy or The Duchess of Devonshire (once the most expensive picture in the world, dramatically stolen and finally recovered by Pinkerton’s detective agency). Told for the first time in this book, this is an important episode in the history of English and American taste.

This little book is a timely publication to accompany the international Gainsborough retrospective opening in Washington and Boston in 2003.

Hugh Belsey is curator at Gainsborough’s House in the artist’s home town of Sudbury, Suffolk. Christopher Wren is a collectables expert.