Thomas Gainsborough

Admiral Sir Charles Thompson, Bt

1774

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

Not on display

Artist: Thomas Gainsborough 1727–1788
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1270 × 1016 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
Reference: N04690

Catalogue entry

N04690 ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES THOMPSON, BART. 1774

Oil on canvas, 50 × 40 (127 × 101.8)
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern to the National Gallery, with life interest to his widow, 1933. Transferred to the Tate Gallery 1979
Prov: ...; Agnew's; Sir Edward Stern by 1933.
Lit: J.E. Wessely, Richard Earlom, Hamburg, 1886, no.53; E.K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p.92, no.664, pl.161.

An engraving of 1800 by Richard Earlom states that the picture was painted in 1774, the year Gainsborough moved from Bath to London. The sitter is shown in three-quarter length, leaning against a rock, with sea and ships in the background. He is wearing a captain's uniform and holds a telescope in his left hand. Admiral Thompson (c.1740–1799) was promoted Captain in 1772, Rear-Admiral 1794 and Vice-Admiral 1795; he was made a baronet in 1797.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1978-80: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1981

Explore

nature(45,213)
- seascapes and coasts(8,003)
- - rocky(1,346)
  - sea(3,366)
objects(23,377)
- clothing and personal items(5,986)
- - uniform / kit(340)
- scientific and measuring(798)
- - telescope(27)
people(35,142)
- actions: postures and motions(9,219)
- - leaning(90)
  - standing(3,207)
- adults(22,735)
- - man(10,497)
- named individuals(12,534)
- - Thompson, Charles, Admiral Sir(1)
- portraits(4,471)
- - individuals: male(1,965)
work and occupations(14,165)
- military(1,630)
- - sailor(125)

You might like

Thomas Gainsborough Sir Benjamin Truman

c.1770–4

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Thomas Gainsborough An Officer of the 16th Light Dragoons

c.1765
Thomas Gainsborough Abel Moysey

c.1764
Thomas Gainsborough John Needham, 10th Viscount Kilmorey

c.1768
Thomas Gainsborough The Baillie Family

c.1784
Thomas Gainsborough Peter Darnell Muilman, Charles Crokatt and William Keable in a Landscape

c.1750
Formerly attributed to Thomas Gainsborough ‘The Parish Clerk’ (Edward Orpin, Parish Clerk of Bradford-upon-Avon)

c.1760–70
Thomas Gainsborough The Rev. Sir Henry Bate-Dudley, Bart

c.1780
Thomas Gainsborough Sir William Blackstone

1774
Thomas Gainsborough Sir Francis Gregg

c.1770
Thomas Gainsborough The Rev. John Chafy Playing the Violoncello in a Landscape

c.1750–2
Thomas Gainsborough Mrs Susanna Gardiner

c.1780–5
Thomas Gainsborough The Artist’s Daughter Margaret

c.1772
Thomas Gainsborough Tristram and Fox

c.1775–85
Manner of Thomas Gainsborough Landscape: Sheep in a Woodland Glade

date not known