On loan
Castle Howard (York, UK): Thomas Gainsborough display
- Artist
- Thomas Gainsborough 1727–1788
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 2349 x 1486 mm
frame: 2608 x 1737 x 115 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle 1913
- Reference
- N02928
Display caption
The large format of this unfinished painting would normally be used for grand portraits of the rich or famous, instead of the working-class woman shown here. In fact, there is a tradition that the woman is the wealthy Hon Mrs Graham in fancy dress.
Whether it is a fancy-dress portrait
or a depiction of a working woman, the painting raises some intriguing questions. Does it simply pander to fantasies of dignified poverty or encourage true sympathy for ordinary people? Is this a kind of voyeuristic ‘pin-up’, or a powerful image of a real social type?
Gallery label, September 2004
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