I am seeking a painter from approx. the 17th & 18th centuries; paintings including "blueboy" & "pinkgirl" pair

Question

These are a pair of probable famous paintings from an artist in the 17th or 18th centuries. (?) I want to know who the painter was, and where the originals are today, and their estimated value.

Answer 1

Thomas Gainsborough (the Blue Boy) & Thomas Lawrence (Pinkie).

The Blue Boy (c. 1770) is an oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough that now resides in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. The painting itself is on a fairly large canvas for a portrait that measures 48 inches wide by 70 inches tall. Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant. Gainsborough had origanally had painted something different on the canvas but then decided to paint over the canvass the portrait of the blue boy. It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in the painting wears clothing not of Gainsborough's time, but of the early 1600s.

It is said that Gainsborough painted the portrait mainly to prove to his chief rival Joshua Reynolds that it was possible to use blue as the central color of a portrait.

The painting was originally in the collection of the Duke of Westminster and caused a public outcry in Britain when it was sold in 1921 by the infamous dealer Joseph Duveen, later Lord Duveen of Millbank. It was bought by the American railway pioneer Henry Edwards Huntington for $182,200, then a record price for any painting. In 1922, before its departure to California, The Blue Boy was briefly put on display at the National Gallery where 90,000 people paid homage to the painting.

In popular culture, the easy recognizability of the Blue Boy has, like the Mona Lisa, lent it to numerous parodies including versions in which the boy is replaced by Mickey Mouse and Kermit the Frog. A 1990 Life Magazine cover story[1] on the then recently deceased Jim Henson described a Kermit version of the portrait hanging in the second-floor conference room of the 1928 brownstone that served as Henson's New York City headquarters.

In the 1988 comedy film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! the Blue Boy (or a facsimile) hangs in the office of the wealthy villain played by Ricardo Montalbán, where it is eventually destroyed by Leslie Nielsen's bumbling protagonist character during a botched break-in attempt.

In Ghostbusters II (1989), Dr. Janosz Poha exclaims to Peter Venkman, with heavy accent approximated, "Theees eeesn't Gainsborough's Blue Boy, ees Preeence Veego, Ruler of Carpathia and Moldavia!"



Sir Thomas Lawrence (April 13, 1769 – January 7, 1830), was a notable English painter, mostly of portraits.

He was born in Bristol. His father was an innkeeper, first at Bristol and afterwards at Devizes, and at the age of six Thomas was already being shown off to the guests of the Bear as an infant prodigy who could sketch their likenesses and declaim speeches from Milton. In 1779 the elder Lawrence had to leave Devizes, having failed in business and Thomas's precocious talent began to be the main source of the family's income; he had gained a reputation along the Bath road. His debut as a crayon portrait painter was made at Oxford, where he was well patronized, and in 1782 the family settled in Bath, where the young artist soon found himself fully employed in taking crayon likenesses of fashionable people at a guinea or a guinea and a half a head. In 1784 he gained the prize and silver-gilt palette of the Society of Arts for a crayon drawing after Raphael's "Transfiguration," and presently beginning to paint in oil.


A portrait of Elizabeth Farren by Thomas LawrenceAbandoning the idea of going on the stage which he had briefly entertained, Lawrence came to London in 1787, was kindly received by Sir Joshua Reynolds , and became a student at the Royal Academy. He began to exhibit almost immediately, and his reputation increased so rapidly that he became an associate of the Academy in 1791. The death of Sir Joshua in 1792 opened the way to further successes. Lawrence was at once appointed painter to the Dilettanti Society, and principal painter to King George III in lieu of Reynolds. In 1794 he was a Royal Academician, and he became the fashionable portrait painter of the age, his sitters including England's most notable people, and ultimately most of the crowned heads of Europe. Caroline of Brunswick was one of his favourite subjects, and is reputed to have been his lover for a time. In 1815 he was knighted; in 1818 he went to Aachen to paint the sovereigns and diplomats gathered there for the third congress, and visited Vienna and Rome, everywhere receiving flattering marks of distinction from princes, due as much to his courtly manners as to his merits as an artist. After eighteen months he returned to England, and on the very day of his arrival was chosen president of the Academy in room of Benjamin West, who had died a few days before. He held the office from 1820 to his death. He was never married.


Portrait of Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, 1819.Sir Thomas Lawrence had all the qualities of personal manner and artistic style necessary to make a fashionable painter, and among English portrait painters he takes a high place, though not as high as that given to him in his lifetime. His more ambitious works, in the classical style, such as his once celebrated "Satan," are practically forgotten.

The best display of Lawrence's work is in the Waterloo Gallery of Windsor, a collection of much historical interest. "Master Lambton," painted for Lord Durham at the price of 600 guineas, is regarded as one of his best portraits, and a fine head in the National Gallery, London, shows his power to advantage. The Life and Correspondence of Sir T. Lawrence, by DE Williams, appeared in 1831.


HISTORY:

Pinkie, facing The Blue Boy in the Main Gallery of the museum and often paired with it in popular esteem, is by Thomas Lawrence, one of the great portrait painters of his generation. It was painted about 25 years after Gainsborough's masterpiece and had no association with that work until they both were displayed in the Huntington in the late 1920s. Executed when the artist was only 25 and shortly after his election to the Royal Academy, Pinkie is an extraordinarily fresh and lively performance with the sitter standing on a hill, her dress blown by the wind. The movement of her dress in conjunction with her frank gaze gives a sense of immediacy to the composition and expresses the animation of the sitter. The young girl was the daughter of a wealthy plantation family in Jamaica, who came to England for her education. Called "Pinkie" by her grandmother who commissioned the portrait, she was only eleven when her likeness was taken. Sadly, Sarah died within a few months of the portrait's completion, probably of tuberculosis. Her younger brother Edward was the father of the poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Pinkie was the last painting purchased by Mr. Huntington, who did not live to see it installed in the house.


The Huntington Gallery

The Huntington Art Gallery contains one of the most distinguished specialized art collections in the country. It is devoted primarily to British art of the 18th and early 19th centuries with a strong supporting collection of French painting, furniture, decorative objects, and sculpture from the same period.

Originally the residence of Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927), the building was designed by Los Angeles architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey. It was built during the years 1909-1911. Most of the interiors are modeled on French and English rooms of the 18th century. The craftsmanship and design in the interiors are of outstanding quality, and the rooms provide a worthy setting for the collection.

The Main Gallery, a 1934 addition, contains the most famous paintings in the collection. They are probably the finest group of full-length British portraits existing anywhere, and provide an unrivaled opportunity to study this form of English art.

Most of the portraits date from the last quarter of the 18th century. Although many of them were commissioned by the people depicted, and eventually hung in their houses, most of the pictures were shown initially at the annual exhibitions at the Royal Academy in London. These grand and stately portraits were conceived with public display in mind.

Answer 2

The blueboy I know was painted by the english painter thomas gainsbourogh

Answer 3

They are in the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA.

Answer 4

They are Gainsborough's 'Blue Boy' and 'Pinkie'. They are worth 10's of thousands.