FINE LADIES AND GENTLE MEN Gainsborough's House Museum Sudbury CO10 2EU UK
exhibition open daily 10am - 4.30pm until 19th October 2025
The title Fine Ladies and Gentle Men alludes to flowers and the human conditions or characteristics associated with them (the face of a pansy or the throat of a lily, for example). It is also a nod towards the sitters in Gainsborough’s many society portraits, showing off – as plants do – with finery and accoutrements of status.
The exhibition showcases a combination of prints and small panel paintings with a particular focus on plant and flower forms and the embellishments employed to attract their pollinators. The 400-year-old black Mulberry Tree in the orchard garden is used as the focus of a large 4 panel print, its branches entwined with references to Gainsborough’s House and paintings within its collection. Repeated overlapping leaf motifs are reminiscent of Sudbury’s fine decorative silk, and the repeating renewals of nature.
A four part print made especially for Gainsborough's House ‘Fine Ladies and Gentle Men’, the 400-year-old black Mulberry Tree in the orchard garden, its branches entwined with references to the house and paintings within its collection. Repeated overlapping leaf motifs both reminiscent of Sudbury’s fine decorative silk, and its repeating growth and renewal year on year.
Collagraph on 4 pieces of 300gsm Somerset paper measuring 89 x 59cm each
Clockwise: Stripey, 2025, oil on wood panel 32.2 x 26.6cm, Pleated Petal, 2025, oil on wood panel. 26.6 x 32.2cm, String Petal, 2025, oil on wood panel 26.6 x 32.2cm
Blinkers No.2, 2025, oil on canvas, 79 x 104.5cm
installation view of the 'Silk Gallery', thought to have formally been a silk weaving room at the time Thomas Gainsborough lived at the house, with two original dresses in Sudbury decorative silk from the house collection.
Blusterwing, 2025 oil on canvas, 121.5 x 121.5cm
