Margaret Gainsborough holding a Theorbo
- Artist: Thomas Gainsborough
- Date: about 1777
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the Margaret Gainsborough holding a Theorbo painted in the English manner. Thomas Gainsborough's youngest daughter, Margaret, is shown playing a theorbo, a kind of lute, while looking out to her right. She's fashionably dressed and coiffed, plucking the strings of her instrument with vigour and bravura. This portrait combines two personal aspects of the artist's life: his affection for his family and friends, and their shared passion for music.
Gainsborough was a leading portrait painter in England, but he often preferred to paint landscapes and rustic scenes. However, when it came to portraits of those close to him, particularly his wife and daughters, he brought a level of intimacy and spontaneity that's rare in his work. Margaret is shown here as a young woman, mid-twenties, while her other portraits by Gainsborough are more formal.
The painting is unfinished, which gives us an insight into the artist's working process. The thick, bold black paint used to sketch the outlines was inspired by the practice of Van Dyck and Rubens. This portrait demonstrates a forward-looking aspect of Gainsborough's late portraiture, one that's almost modern in its immediacy and energy.
See it in person
Margaret Gainsborough holding a Theorbo hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
