Portrait of a Young Woman Seated

Thomas Gainsborough

ca. 1760 · Black chalk with touches of red wash · Drawings and Prints

Soon after moving to Bath in 1760, Gainsborough made this delicate chalk drawing as he worked on a life-size oil portrait of amateur singer and musician Ann Ford. Ford’s private performances took the town by storm, and the artist intended his painting to attract national attention. Soft black chalk lines describe a seated pose, diamond-shaped pendant earrings, and a dark neck ribbon. The facial features are lightly indicated, since the artist intended to develop these later, directly on the canvas. The elaborate silk gown adorned with lace cuffs and looped satin ribbons was of greater interest. Trained in the French manner, Gainsborough established a fluid graphic web that delights in the abstract possibilities of the fashionably dressed female form.

Artist

Thomas Gainsborough

Date

ca. 1760

Medium

Black chalk with touches of red wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Christine Burgin and Donald Young Foundation Gifts, 2012