Quintessentially English Gainsboroughís Paintings Depict Aristocracy, Rural Countryside by Gary Tischler In the exhibition ìThomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788,î now at the National Gallery of Art, you can see a journey from the traditional to the original, where a renowned portrait painter fused his passions and interests with a commercial gift. But Gainsborough was even better than that. He gave us a vivid idea of what it means to be identifiably English. If ever there were pictures that say, ìThere will always be an England,î they would be Gainsborough paintings. If you ever wanted to see a portrait of English aristocracy at its zenith, at its most appealing and memorable, look up Gainsborough. And if you wanted an almost idealized portrait of rustic, romantic, rural Englandóthe one that exists in books, poems and in the mindís eyeónow you can also look to Gainsborough for that countryside. In this exhibition of 63 paintings and 31 drawings, both genres are given generous representation. Gainsborough, after all, loved his landscapes but knew enough to realize that h e could not make a living from them, instead he either kept them to himself or gave them away to friends. Rather, Gainsborough made a living, a good one to say the least, from his portraits. Most of these works were portraits of bluebloods, marquis, lords, ladies, officers, masters of the house and other esteemed members of the ruling classóon parade and in their finest. Whatís striking about these portraits is their diversity and individuality. The people are not just typesóa bishop, a vicar, a lord, a colonel of the regiment, a lady of the houseótheyíre living and breathing souls full of attitude and personality. When Gainsborough hit his stride, he reinvented the genre, and when he hit the top of his mark, he fused his love of landscape with his genius of portraiture. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsboroughís only real rival among English painters of that period, was a more solid type. He had a greatness that was rooted in classical themes and the certainty of his subjects and themes. He apparently disagreed with Gainsborough often but nevertheless praised him lavishly. Naturalness, fluidity, a certain ambivalence, and an identification of feeling invaded Gainsboroughís worksóas if they had been touched by an uncertain wind and somehow been rearranged to reveal intimacies of thought and spirit. Typically, portrait sitters were posed in the studio and in antiquated costume-like clothing to better suggest grandeur and high-minded spiritualityóto suggest, perhaps, that the standing held by dukes and duchesses, the tangential royals and officers was an eternal one. Gainsborough went beyond such standard posing: He imbued his men and women, his lords, hunters and officers with a humanity that did nothing to detract from their standing. Looking at a portrait of ìGeorge, Lord Vernonîócasually leaning against a wind-blown tree, his cocked period hat tightly fit, his dog importuning himóhe is more than just a master of the hounds, rather he owns the landscape and dominates it. Gainsborough brings an ephemeral quality to his portraits. They are interesting because thereís much more than mere vanity at work hereósome little window into the soul has been opened. Look at ìThe Duke and Duchess of Cumberland, Attended by Lady Elizabeth Luttrell,î for example. The trio is dwarfed by trees, which are never still in Gainsboroughís paintings. The three are completely confident even though apparently all of them were the subject of the scandal sheets at the time. The portraits are nothing less than natural and dead-on and, in the case of female subjects, hypnotically appealing. Who in the end wouldnít fall in love with a woman like ìMrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridanî posing against a stormy, pulsating landscape? None of the people who occupied space as part of Gainsboroughís landscapes ever approaches such true psychological detail. If anything, theyíre sentimentalized as part of scenes that appear to need only a nudge to start rustling and moving, the light changing, the grass swaying, the dust rising and the time going by in a quintessential English moment captured by a quintessential English painter. ìThomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788î runs through May 11 at the National Gallery of Art, Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, NW. For more information, please call (202) 737-4215 or visit www.nga.gov. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.