Gainsborough's Suffolk Portraits


The young Thomas Gainsborough returned to Suffolk after training, and marrying, in London when his father died. He first lived in Sudbury, where he was born, and then moved to Ipswich. During his time in Suffolk, he built up a practice of portrait-painting, and many of his first sitters were people who had earlier subscribed to one or more of Kirby's works. Gainsborough continued to work in Suffolk for a few years after Kirby moved to London before himself moving to the more lucrative Bath as his reputation increased.

Here we give a list of most of Gainsborough's Suffolk portraits, with an emphasis on those connected with Kirby.

The Suffolk Portraits
Kirby Family

Joshua Kirby
Joshua and Sarah Kirby
Alice Kirby

John Kirby
Conversation Pieces

Mr and Mrs Andrews
Mr and Mrs Carter
Darnell, Crokatt, Keable

Gravenor Family
Mary Cobbold and Daughter
Couple in Landscape
Lloyd Family

Sir Richard Lloyd
Richard Savage Lloyd and Mother
Cecil Lloyd

Heneage and Lucy Lloyd
Local Gentry

Clayton Jones
Admiral Vernon
Nathaniel Acton

Caroline (Wearg) Acton
Elizabeth (Acton) Colville
Elizabeth Edgar

William Wollaston
Dorothea Scrivenor
Lambe Barry

John Plampin
Soldiers and Militia

Hon. Charles Hamilton
Officer of 1st Dragoon Guards
Major John Dade

William Lynch
Giles Phillips
Clergy and Their Relatives

Rev. John Chafy
John Garnett, DD
Rev. Henry Burrough

Rev. Richard Canning
Rev. Tobias Rustat
Mrs. Sarah (Paige) Rustat

Susan (Murrill) Hill
Gainsborough Family

Artist, wife and daughter
Self-portrait, 1754
Humphry Gainsborough

Daughters Chasing a Butterfly
The Painter's Two Daughters
The Painter’s Wife

Self-Portrait
Gainsborough Friends

Joseph Gibbs
John Wood
Unknown Sitters

Woman with a spaniel


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