Thomas Gainsborough

In addition to works by Gainsborough and some of his British contemporaries, the exhibition will also feature works by his predecessors, including Rubens, van Dyck, and Watteau.

The exhibition focuses on the poetic connection between portraiture and nature, a hallmark of the artist.

With his lively brushstrokes, Gainsborough created visual worlds full of lightness and expressiveness that seem to foreshadow the plein air painting of Impressionism. Under the theme of “a stroll,” the exhibition invites visitors to encounter the painter and his models.

Gainsborough in Berlin

Why Berlin? The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin owns five significant individual and group portraits by Gainsborough, including the early portrait of his wife Margaret (c. 1759), the life-size portrait of steel manufacturer John Wilkinson (c. 1775), and the monumental group portrait of the Marsham children (1787). The latter is one of the most free-spirited works of his late period.

The appreciation for Gainsborough and his British contemporaries can be traced back to a cultural event in Prussian history:

In 1908, the Berlin Academy hosted a loan exhibition of English paintings comprising more than one hundred works, most of which came from private British collections. The exhibition was the result of cultural-diplomatic efforts to improve the strained relations between the royal houses of Great Britain and Prussia, which were closely linked by dynastic ties. On display were numerous spectacular works from the British school, which was little known on the European mainland.

The exhibition’s great success with the public led Wilhelm von Bode and his successors to build a world-class collection of 18th- and early 19th-century British painting, which remains unique in Germany to this day. In addition to Gainsborough’s works, the collection includes significant pieces by Joshua Reynolds, Johan Zoffany, and Richard Wilson, some of which will also be on view in the special exhibition.

A Stroll Through the Greens

Thanks to his free style, Thomas Gainsborough is today arguably the most popular English painter of his time. He transformed the dignitaries of Baroque court portraiture—who were typically posed statuarily before massive columns and heavy velvet curtains—into casual, elegant figures strolling outdoors. In doing so, Gainsborough drew inspiration not least from his great role model, Anton van Dyck, and thus pioneered a new style of portraiture that can be considered the most popular genre of the 18th century.

His flâneurs are in motion, pausing, meeting the viewer’s gaze on equal terms. They radiate a natural immediacy and presence. Gainsborough viewed his subjects not merely as social representatives, but as individuals within a larger natural context. In doing so, he addressed fundamental questions of the Enlightenment and developed a visual language whose modernity continues to resonate to this day.

Tradition and a New Perspective

Gainsborough’s depictions of trees and gently winding forest paths are not a byproduct of his artistic work. He was the first painter of his time to elevate the English landscape to an independent subject of art, thereby marking the beginning of a profound engagement with the genre of landscape painting by subsequent generations of British artists.

His intensive study of nature is documented in countless sketches created during excursions in his native southern England. As with his portraits, Gainsborough also drew on painterly influences in his landscape paintings; thanks to the Gemäldegalerie’s outstanding collection, these can be illustrated through striking comparisons with works by Jacob van Ruisdael, Peter Paul Rubens, and Gaspard Dughet.

The Free Stroke

With his free, almost impetuous brushstrokes, Gainsborough transforms the canvas into a shimmering cosmos of color, light, and air that already foreshadows the plein air painting of Impressionism. Through drawing studies from the Collection of Prints at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, visitors can discover the artist as a virtuoso draftsman of landscape and figure studies and gain a behind-the-scenes look at his creative process.

Audio Guide

Special attention is given to the stories behind the paintings. In a specially developed audio guide, the people depicted speak for themselves: they recount their daily lives, their hopes, and their existence in colonial Britain on the cusp of industrialization. This creates a vivid picture of an era in which art, society, and our relationship with nature underwent fundamental changes. A soundtrack accompanies the tour and invites visitors to take a leisurely stroll through the exhibition.

Exhibition Catalog

A richly illustrated catalog with in-depth essays is published to accompany the exhibition.

Educational Program

The exhibition opens on May 14, 2027—exactly 300 years after Gainsborough’s baptism—followed by a weekend of celebrations.

Guided tours, workshops for adults and children, summer programs, and lectures also offer opportunities to explore the artist and his era from various perspectives.

Curator

The exhibition is curated by Sarah Salomon, curator of 18th-century European painting and 17th-century German painting.

• A special exhibition by the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin