Artist Thomas Gainsborough (d1788) needs little introduction - think of ‘Blue Boy’ or ‘Mr & Mrs Andrews’. This masterpiece of ‘Miss Linley & Her Brother’, like all his portraits, resonates with depth of character and unspoken stories withheld by those gazing out of the picture. The main subject here was Elizabeth, Bath-resident singer and eldest daughter of Thomas, composer & musician. She was one of the Blue Stocking Society and was regarded as both a fine soprano and incredibly beautiful. Her brother, also Thomas, was an actor who occasionally performed in Covent Garden in ‘duets’ with his sister. Gainsborough painted the pair in 1768, 20 years before his own death & while too living in the fashionable West Country city, though the work was apparently first called ‘A Beggar Boy & Girl’!? Elizabeth often drew controversy, for eg eloping on the eve of her marriage in 1771 to France with playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan who she later married and endured a tempestuous liaison.
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