"Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife" (1750) by T. Gainsborough
I'd
like to describe the picture "Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife" by T.
Gainsborough. First of all I'd like to say a few words about the
painter. He is a self-taught and famous portrait painter of the 18th
century who developed his own style of painting and who was in advance
of his time. He painted from nature, memory and imagination. He
specialized mainly in portraiture.
This picture is an oil-painting.
It is a full-length portrait of a husband and a wife. The picture is
arranged asymmetrically. The painter divided this picture space
diagonally.
In the foreground, in the left-hand corner of the
picture we can see a couple. The painter doesn't define the nearer
figures more sharply than the landscape and doesn't emphasize contours
purposely so the sitters blend with the landscape and merge into a
single entity with it. The woman is represented sitting on a bench under
a tree and the man is represented standing next to her. The sitters'
clothes indicate to some extent their position in the society - maybe to
the middle-class or to the upper-class. Though I believe that such
elaborate clothes with white hoses in the 18th century can be bought
only by the representatives of the upper class. There's also a special
dog for hunting standing near the man, it's obvious that it belong to
the family because it looks devotedly at the man and it also proves the
fact that they are the representatives of the upper class. In the
right-hand corner in the foreground we can see a path with a sheaf of
wheat lying on it.
As I have already said Gainsborough places the
figures against the landscape background. It's important to mention the
fact that the painter broke with the tradition and used English country,
because there's side for the background instead of traditional, Italian
background. In the background we can see trees, a pasture with sheep or
cows grazing on it, hills - it's a typical English landscape. Some
elements of the landscape are scarcely discernible. The sky which is
also in the background is cloudy, with thick leaden clouds - though the
delicacy of tones may be lost in the reproduction - but it also looks
as calm as the landscape.
The picture is painted in soft and
delicate colours though the delicacy of brilliant tones may be lost in
reproduction. Everything is muted in colour. Gainsborough managed to
combine form and colour into harmonious unity. He used the colour scheme
where green, blue and yellow predominate instead of traditional red,
brown and black colours. So I can say that this picture doesn't conform
to the taste of the period.
I think that this picture is lyrical and
poetic in tone and atmosphere. The painter managed to convey a sense of
space. The picture is distinguished by a marvelous sense of colour and
composition and that makes it an exquisite piece of painting and an
unsurpassed masterpiece