ABSTRACT
The Blue Boy was created in Bath, but it became a well-known and admired work in London, where Thomas Gainsborough moved in 1774. Growing familiarity with the painting and its narrative led the British public to consider The Blue Boy a national treasure and an object of shared cultural heritage. From the late 1760s through the 1780s, critical attention from the press nurtured the one-upmanship and artistic jousting between Gainsborough and Reynolds as they responded to each other’s subject matter and rendering. Some critics noted Gainsborough’s poor handling of color, particularly in his celebrated portrait of Grace Dalrymple, a divorced courtesan who was living with the 4th Earl of Cholmondeley. The tightly tied lace collar and extended lace cuffs worn by Gainsborough’s sitter contrast sharply with Browne’s open, white linen shirt with broad ruffled collar and understated linen cuffs, associated at the time with schoolboys and women.
