Gainsborough Bicentenary Celebrations

Commemorations for 'The Blue Boy' author, English painter Thomas Gainsborough, in his home town of Sudbury; a local newsreel to mark the bi-centenary of his birth.

This newsreel, produced to be screened in local picturehouses, shows the bicentenary celebrations by the citizens of Sudbury as they commemorate the much-admired Sudbury-born painter, Thomas Gainsborough, whose notable works include 'The Blue Boy'. The whole town gathers in the streets, with a parade of dignitaries, attended by none other than the President of the Royal Academy, Sir Frank Dicksee, and gathering at the memorial statue of the artist in the town centre.

Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, the eighth of nine children of a textile manufacturer. He was baptised on May 14th 1727 at the Independent Meeting House. He moved to London during the early 1740s and worked as a picture restorer and as an apprentice, painting background and minor figures for other artists, including Wynants. He also drew scenes to be made into engravings from the print trade. Although he painted some landscapes, he is remembered for his portraiture. Some of Gainsborough's notable landscapes include The Market Cart, Peasant Smoking At The Cottage Door, Landscape with Farming Scenes and Landscape with Gypsies. Gainsborough died from cancer on 3rd August, 1788.