Gainsborough was the rival of Reynolds in portraiture, and of Richard Wilson in landscape. He, more than any other artist, should be called the father of modern English painting and his influence as first of the impressionists can be traced through all contemporary art—in Constable, in the middle-Victorian landscapists, in the Glasgow school, in the New English Art Club. The greatest colorist of the early British school, he was rapid and facile in execution, dignified and graceful in expression, absolutely true to life and nature, and essentially English in sentiment.
He painted more than 300 canvases, of which 220 were portraits. Among his sitters were George III, Pitt, Burke, Clive, Franklin, Sterne, Johnson, Garrick, Sheridan, Mrs. Siddons, and the Duchess of Devonshire. The portrait of the latter was exhibited in 1793, and was subsequently bought by Thomas Agnew and Sons for £10,065. In 1876 the canvas was cut from the frame in their galleries by a thief, but was recovered in the United States in April, 1901, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Among other notable Gainsborough portraits are his "Portrait of a Young Lady," "Duchess of Gloucester," "Mrs. Siddons," "Perdita Robinson," "Mrs. Graham," and the "Blue Boy," now in the Huntington Collection, California. A "Landscape with Figures" is in the Chicago Art Institute, and two "Landscapes," "Mr. Burroughs," and a "Child with Cat," in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City.
