Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727 - 1788

Commissioned by the sitter's father, Benjamin Bathurst (1693-1767), Lydney Park, Gloucestershire;
Thence by descent to the present owner

This charming portrait of a young brother and sister was painted in c. 1759 when Gainsborough was in his early thirties. It is generally considered to be one of the most ambitious portraits which he attempted in his first years in Bath and its recent rediscovery adds greatly to our understanding of Gainsborough's development as a portraitist in that fashionable metropolis.

Gainsborough moved to Bath in 1759, having worked for over ten years in his native Suffolk, first at Sudbury and later at Ipswich. Having made his mark in London, where his father had sent him when he was very young, he must have had high hopes that he could make a living in the county of his birth. However commissions were far from plentiful and of necessity his prices in Suffolk remained low. Bath on the other hand was an ideal  environment for a painter. It was a highly fashionable spa, drawing to it those concerned with either their health or with fashion. The city itself was prosperous, and developments by such architects as John Wood the elder and younger greatly improved it. Demand for town houses led to the construction of the Circus, begun in 1754, and the Royal Crescent (completed in 1775 shortly after Gainsborough left Bath). Moreover, apart from William Hoare, Gainsborough had little competition from other artists. Business soon came in fast, and he was able to raise his prices from eight to twenty guineas for a head and from fifteen to forty guineas for a half length.

The Bathurst's were exactly the sort of clientele that Gainsborough had hoped to attract by his move to Bath. They were originally an old Sussex family. Lawrence Bathurst had fought for Henry VI in the fifteenth century and lost much of his inheritence, but his son and grandson lived prosperously in Kent on the Wealden estate. In the sixteenth century Launcelot Bathurst became an alderman of the city of London and owned the manor of Franks in North Kent, where he built a fine Elizabethan house. His son George married a Northamptonshire heiress, Elizabeth Villiers, and settled in that county and George's son Benjamin became an M.P. and a successful merchant, prominent in the City of London. He married Frances daughter of Sir Allen Apsley and a friend and confident of the Princesses Mary and Anne, and perhaps through their influence became Treasurer to Princess Anne's household and later her Cofferer when she became Queen. In 1695 he acquiried Cirencester Park, in Gloucestershire. Three of his sons followed him into politics. The eldest, Allen was M.P. for Cirencester and was created Earl Bathurst. He inherited Cirencester Park to which he made substantial alterations, and was a celebrated planter and friend of Pope and Warpole. A younger son Peter became M.P. for Wilton, Cirencester and Salisbury, and owned Clarendon Park near Salisbury. Peter Bathurst had an important connection with Gainsborough at this period as his daughter Louisa married George Byam who commissioned from the artist The Byam Family (Private Collection), one of the most successful of his full length portraits from his Bath period. It was Sir Benjamin's third son Benjamin who commissioned the present portrait. Born in 1691, he was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Oxford. In 1714 he married Finetta, daughter of Henry Poole, who died in 1738, having given birth to twenty-two children. His second wife was Catherine daughter of the Reverend Lawrence Brodrick, chaplain to the House of Commons, whom he married in 1741. She was the mother of the two children in the portrait. In 1723 Benjamin acquired from the widow of Sir Charles Wynter the fine Gloucestershire manor house, Lydney Park (fig.1) with its large park and beautiful gardens. He repaired the house and probably added the stable block.

In painting the Bathurst children full length and life size Gainsborough was moving away from the smaller scale portrait groups of the early 1750's where the figures can appear almost doll like. In its larger scale and in its depiction of the two children holding hands in an affectionate way the portrait is very reminiscent of The Painters Daughters chasing a Butterfly of c. 1756 (National Gallery, London). This charming portrait of the Bathurst children remained untraced until five years ago and when it was exhibited at Bath, along with The Byam Family, it was described in the catalogue as 'amongst the most important paintings by Gainsborough to come to light in recent years'.