Marking the 300th anniversary of his birth (1727) these lectures will look at the life and works of Thomas Gainsborough. Justly considered one of this country’s greatest ever portrait painters, along with his rival Joshua Reynolds, he created what has been called the Golden Age of British Art. Despite achieving great artistic and financial success he actually hated his ‘day job’: “I am sick of portraits,” he said, “and wish very much to take my viol da gamba and walk off to some sweet village where I can paint landskips and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease”. Find out how he achieved acclaim and financial success…and what he would have preferred to be doing. He was, indeed, a dissident at the top of the art world.
Alan Read has a masters and first-class honours degree in History of Art from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a gallery guide at Tate Britain and regularly lectures at both London Tates. For twenty years he was a gallery guide and lecturer at the National Portrait Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. He also works as a London Blue Badge Guide.