Tuesday 1 January 2019



I had to chivvy myself out the door this afternoon to do something - anything - after far too many days spent eating and drinking and playing board games and not once up and out for a walk or breath of fresh air.  (I spent Christmas in my natural bad-habitat with a family of night owls, all of us livening up and getting our second or third wind at 3am but regrettably not so perky before noon.)
Of course, I didn't stride out for a bracing hike today but I did manage a gentle amble from Leicester Square tube to the National Portrait Gallery (don't mock me!) where Gainsborough's Family Album proved utterly enchanting and a perfect Last Exhibition to ring out 2018.
And there were the artist's daughters, Margaret and Mary, carefree little girls chasing a butterfly in the painting we all know best ...



Playing with each other's hair ...



Then they're growing up so fast and looking serious and restrained, training to be artists themselves (a career plan that comes to nothing) because Gainsborough, who has been ill, is worrying about their future security and prospects.
Even so, he was longing to be free from 'tea drinkings, dancings, husband huntings &c' so he could devote his time to painting less lucrative landscapes and his music.



The girls do become young ladies of fashion but all that youthful joie de vivre has vanished. Mary's marriage lasts only two years and her mental health deteriorates so her younger spinster sister becomes her carer.

The daughters' story is heartbreaking but the family album embraces a vast extended family. (Even 'Scheming Jack' the ne'er do well brother, always on the scrounge, whose portrait is jokingly inscribed Gainsborow.)



There's Mrs Gainsborough - the artist's wife - seen first as a rosy-cheeked teenage bride who was pregnant on her wedding day - but fast forward and she's turned into a long-suffering matron with an irascible temper who is nevertheless a brilliant business manager for her philandering husband.



Then there's the artist's sister Sarah, all starchy frills and furbelows and social aspirations ... which made me wonder what kind of domestic bliss it was for her unpretentious carpenter husband - who looks as if he'd be perfectly happy with a pipe and a pint.





There's a sweet little niece  whose life - I hope - turned out more happily than her cousins'. And I think this is the artist's cousin's mother-in-law ... in her best bib and tucker and making the most of the family connection.



It always seems so poignant thinking, there they were - so full of life and idiosyncrasies - and now they're dead. And what on earth would they think of a straggle of visitors in a gallery on New Year's Eve more than 250 years later?

Happy New Year everyone!

11 comments:

Lesley Anne said...

Happy New Year Mary. I wish you a joyous 2019. Although I don't always comment I do love reading your blog, if only to give me an insight into what I have been missing! Please keep up the good work.

I always feel conflicted about family portraits when you know what faces the subjects in their life to come. I remember reading about the tragedy of the Gainsborough girls, and seeing that wistful innocence in their childhood makes it all the more poignant. I think there is a similar story with other paintings of sisters (the one at Dulwich ?? the family name escapes me- although I wasn't up for New Year, it was quite frankly like a war zone with so many fireworks, loud and late into the night, so I am far from firing on all cylinders this morning!)

I look forward to your continued adventures in 2019,

Best wishes

LA

Vronni's Style Meanderings said...

Happy New Year! I wiah you joy and peace in 2019.

I felt I knew the Gainsborough family quite well after reading your post. Several of the pictures were oh so familiar, too.

I'm the opposite to you, Mary. I'm up early bright eyed and bushy tailed but struggled last night to stay up for the big moment...

Here's to lots more wonderful exhibitions, books, plays and films in 2019!

Mary said...

Are you thinking of the Linley sisters, Lesley Anne? I think one of them had a fairly tempestuous marriage/elopement. Many thanks for reading. I've been flagging lately and it's nice to know that somebody. out there enjoys it!

OH, Veronica - I'd love to be bushy-tailed in the morning! You all seem to get so much done. Happy New Year to you too,

Cosy Books said...

Happy New Year, Mary! How you manage those late-nights, I`ll never know, but I would have loved to spend the afternoon at the National Gallery with you. The portraits are beautiful...the ripples in the silk fascinate me every time.

Mary said...

It really is a lovely exhibition, Darlene - let's hope there's something equally good when you visit!

Pam said...

Oh, I enjoy your blog too. Also, I rely on it for things to do in London - though actually nowadays it's only in imagination, because I spend most of my London time with my granddaughter in Walthamstow - she doesn't quite see the point of exhibitions at this stage in her life.

Happy New Year.

Your thinking about the Gainsboroughs' imaginary reaction to seeing themselves the subjects of an exhibition 250 years later is exactly what I always feel. Raeburn's Skating Minister, who features on pens and bags and notebooks and buses and posters - he'd be amazed if he could see himself!

Mary said...

Wouldn't he just, Pam! I wonder if he'd approve? Probably not!
Happy New Year - and I'm sure in a few years you'll be going to exhibitions with your grand-daughter - or maybe she'll be taking you!

Lucille said...

Happy New Year Mary. Flagging by midnight and on the blog too, I regret. But always keen to read any insights and recommendations from you. I am looking forward to Bonnard, one of my early crushes and so full of the colour that is missing from our lives at present although I always worry about the tepid bath water that his wife Marthe lay in for so much of the time. Or was it voluntary, I forget?

Mary said...

Bonnard will be fabulous, Lucille; I still remember the Hayward show years ago. Can't be easy being an artist's wife!
I'm also looking to whatever Chihuly does at Kew Gardens; the last one was amazing -can't believe it's 15 years ago or thereabouts.
Happy New Year.

Lucille said...

I saw Chihuly at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, beautiful set and incorporated in the glass houses. I didn't know they were coming to Kew, how exciting.

Mary said...

The last one was stunning, Lucille - but how wonderful to see him in New York. I've never been to the Botanical Garden.