Thomas Gainsborough: The Modern Landscape

Exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 2 March - 27 May 2018

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) is one of the great European painters of the eighteenth century and was famous for his portraits displaying the unique individuality of his subjects. However, Gainsborough himself favored landscape painting over portraiture.

This exhibition catalogue is the first to present the English artist as a pivotal figure in the development of modern landscape painting, a genre in which his painterly subtlety and technical variation were particularly innovative. The book brings together German and British traditions of viewing, interpreting, and studying Gainsborough, considering the connections of his work to Dutch landscapes, explaining Gainsborough's unusual and experimental techniques, and situating his landscapes in the context of the social tensions of early industrialization.