Portrait of Mary Anne Jolliffeafter 1788
The only assistant his famous uncle ever had, Gainsborough Dupont apprenticed with Thomas Gainsborough before setting up his own studio. More about this work
About this work
The only assistant his famous uncle ever had, Gainsborough Dupont apprenticed with Thomas Gainsborough before setting up his own studio. It is often difficult to distinguish the late works of both artists. This painting is among Dupont’s best portraits. He captures the beauty of his sitter with soft, flickering brushstrokes, detailing her frilly collar and impressive hairstyle, curled and powdered according to the current style. This portrait originally hung alongside that of her husband Thomas in the drawing room of the couple’s home, Ammerdown House in Somerset, where Thomas’s portrait still hangs today.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Gainsborough Dupont
British, 1754–1797
Gainsborough Dupont was the nephew of Thomas Gainsborough and his only known apprentice, trained in his uncle’s studio in Bath and then London, where he absorbed his style closely. He made mezzotints after Gainsborough’s portraits and, after his uncle’s death in 1788, carried on the practice in a similar manner, painting William Pitt the Younger several times as well as many fashionable sitters.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1942.640
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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