Portrait of a Young Woman Seated
ca. 1760
Medium
Black chalk with touches of red wash
Dimensions
Sheet (corners trimmed): 11 3/4 x 7 in. (29.8 x 17.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Christine Burgin and Donald Young Foundation Gifts, 2012
Accession Number
2012.242
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Gainsborough, one of Britain's most celebrated 18th portraitists, captures the poised elegance of youth in this intimate *Portrait of a Young Womanated* (ca. 1760). Working during the Rococo era's graceful flourish, Gainsborough was renowned for his fluid oil paintings of the aristocracy, but this drawing reveals his mastery in more spontaneous media. Likely a preparatory study or standalone sketch from his time in Bath or London, it reflects the period's fascination with refined femininity amid growing Enlightenment ideals of individuality. Executed in black chalk with subtle touches ...
About the Artist
Thomas Gainsborough · 1727–1788
Thomas Gainsborough was born on 14 May 1727 in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest of nine children to wool dealer John Gainsborough and his wife Mary. Demonstrating prodigious talent from childhood, he sketched landscapes in the local woods and fields, fostering his lifelong passion for the genre. At age thirteen, he moved to London, where he trained under the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Fr...