Gainsborough Av James Hamilton

<P><B>** Selected as a Book of the Year in <I>The Times</I>, <I>Sunday Times</I> and <I>Observer **</I></B><br><B><br>''Compulsively readable - the pages seem to turn themselves'' John Carey, <I>Sunday Times </I></B><br><B>''B</B><B>rings one of the very greatest [artists] vividly to life'' <I>Literary Review</I></B><br><br>Thomas Gainsborough lived as if electricity shot through his sinews and crackled at his finger ends. He was a gentle and empathetic family man, but had a shockingly loose, libidinous manner and a volatility that could lead him to slash his paintings. <br><br>James Hamilton reveals the artist in his many contexts: the talented Suffolk lad, transported to the heights of fashion; the rake-on-the-make in London, learning his craft in the shadow of Hogarth; the society-portrait painter in Bath and London who earned huge sums by charming the right people into his studio. With fresh insights into original sources, <I>Gainsborough: A Portrait</I> transforms our understanding of this fascinating man, and enlightens the century that bore him.</P>