This week’s competition prize is Gainsborough: A Portrait by James Hamilton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson; £25). Click here for your chance to win.
In this exhilarating new biography – the first in decades – James Hamilton reveals Gainsborough in his many contexts: the easy-going Suffolk lad, transported to the heights of fashion by a natural talent; the rake-on-the-make in London, learning his art in the shadow of Hogarth; falling on his feet when he married a duke’s daughter with a handsome private income; the top society-portrait painter in Bath and London who earned huge sums by bringing the right people into his studio; the charming and amusing friend of George III and Queen Charlotte who nevertheless kept clear of the aristocratic embrace.
There has been much art history written about this chameleon of art, but with fresh insights into original sources, Gainsborough: A Portrait transforms our understanding of this fascinating man, and illuminates the century that bore him.
For your chance to win simply answer the following question and submit your details here before midday on 1 September:
Q: Gainsborough was born in which English county?
Last week’s competition prize was Highland Retreats: The Architecture and Interiors of Scotland’s Romantic North by Mary Miers (Rizzoli; £45). The question was:
Q: Which Victorian artist painted The Monarch of Glen, depicting a red deer stag in the Highlands?
A: Edwin Landseer.
Congratulations to the winner, Karen Ries.