The Confrérie: Blue Boy    
 Blue Boy5 comments
2 Jun 2004 @ 18:42, by Jo Brown

Jonathan Buttall: The Blue Boy (c 1770)
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88)
oil on canvas, 70 5/8 x 48 3/4 inches
21.01
.

The best known painting at the Huntington, Gainsborough's The Blue Boy, portrays Jonathan Buttall, the son of a successful hardware merchant, who was a close friend of the artist. The work was executed during Gainsborough's extended stay in Bath before he finally settled in London in 1774. The artist has dressed the young man in a costume dating from about 140 years before the portrait was painted. This type of costume was familiar through the portraits of the great Flemish painter, Anthony van Dyck (1559-1641), who was resident in England during the early 17th century. Gainsborough greatly admired the work of Van Dyck and seems to have conceived The Blue Boy as an act of homage to that master. Mr. Huntington purchased the painting along with Gainsborough's The Cottage Door and Reynolds's Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse from the Duke of Westminster.

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5 comments

2 Jun 2004 @ 18:50 by bushman : Cool :}
But did you know there is a second painting under the blueboys paint?  

2 Jun 2004 @ 18:53 by martha : Yes i remember
when i went to the huntington that they have an x-ray showing that I think. I haven't been to the galleries in awhile but next time I go I'll check. I wonder if the blueboy of ncn looks like the pic...LOL  

2 Jun 2004 @ 18:55 by scotty : a second painting !!!!
hmm - I think I'd rather see that than the 'blueboy' painting - it's a bit naff if you ask me ! (just teasing blueboy - honest !!! squirm squirm !)

If blueboy of ncn looks like that pic - er ... c'mon Martha - NOBODY could actually LOOK like that !!!  

2 Jun 2004 @ 19:03 by martha : The real painting is quite large
and the face looks quite real. One time when I went with my sister a guard spent a long time with me talking about the picture and I learned all sorts of stuff...that went right out my head...LOL...now i doubt if blueboy would be wearing those clothes. I was thinking more of the face with a different hairstyle.  

2 Jun 2004 @ 19:09 by scotty : Given the choice
of the face or the clothes - I'll take the clothes (at least they can be changed hahahaha )

So sorry mr Jo Brown - I think I'm just in one of these moods tonight !
Nothing personal - honest !  

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