Thomas Gainsborough

Musidora

c.1780–8

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: 1880 x 1530 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
Reference: N00308

Display caption

This is the only large-scale nude that Gainsborough ever painted. It remained unfinished and was never shown in public in his lifetime. The title probably refers to the nymph Musidora who represented ‘Summer’ in a popular eighteenth-century poem, The Seasons, by James Thomson. But this title was added later. Gainsborough probably saw this woman more generally as an anonymous classical nymph.The figure’s pose is based on a classical marble sculpture in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Gallery label, May 2007

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Features

BP Spotlight: Bodies of Nature

Cora Gilroy-Ware

Bodies of (Human) Nature: Nymphs in British Art 1780–1840

Explore

leisure and pastimes(7,761)
- recreational activities(2,910)
  - bathing / swimming(226)
literature and fiction(3,208)
- literature (not Shakespeare)(2,344)
  - Thomson, James, ‘The Seasons’(13)
nature(46,527)
- landscape(26,712)
  - wooded(8,610)
- water: inland(11,673)
  - waterfall(496)
people(35,873)
- actions: postures and motions(9,288)
  - leg / legs raised(84)
  - sitting(3,396)
- adults(23,442)
  - woman(9,321)
- nudes(2,563)
  - female(1,670)
religion and belief(8,394)
- classical myths: creatures(147)
  - nymph(47)
society(35,465)
- sex and relationships(5,334)
  - sensuality(49)

You might like

Thomas Gainsborough Mrs Susanna Gardiner

c.1780–5
Thomas Gainsborough The Rev. Sir Henry Bate-Dudley, Bart

c.1780
Thomas Gainsborough Pomeranian Bitch and Puppy

c.1777
Thomas Gainsborough The Housemaid

c.1782–6
Thomas Gainsborough Admiral Sir Charles Thompson, Bt

1774
Thomas Gainsborough Sir William Blackstone

1774
Thomas Gainsborough The Artist’s Daughter Margaret

c.1772
Thomas Gainsborough The Artist’s Daughter Mary

1777
Thomas Gainsborough The Baillie Family

c.1784
Thomas Gainsborough Giovanna Baccelli

exhibited 1782

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Thomas Gainsborough Landscape with Gipsies

c.1753–4
Thomas Gainsborough Boy Driving Cows near a Pool

c.1786
Thomas Gainsborough Sir Benjamin Truman

c.1770–4

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Thomas Gainsborough Gainsborough Dupont

c.1770–5
Thomas Gainsborough Gypsy Encampment, Sunset

c.1778–80

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art