FINE LADIES AND GENTLE MEN Gainsborough's House Museum Sudbury UK
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.
