Mr and Mrs Andrews (1750) is an oil on canvas portrait by Thomas Gainsborough in the National Gallery, London. Today it is one of his most famous works. It was purchased in 1960 with contributions from the Pilgrim Trust, The Art Fund, Associated Television Ltd, and Mr and Mrs W. W. Spooner.
Thomas Gainsborough was twenty-one when he painted Mr and Mrs Andrews in 1750. He himself had married pregnant Margaret Burr and returned to Sudbury, his home town, after an apprenticeship in London with the French artist Hubert-François Gravelot, from whom he learnt the French rococo style. There, he also picked up a love of landscapes in the Dutch style. However, landscape painting was far less prestigious and poorly paid compared to portraits and Gainsborough was forced (since the family business, a clothiers' in Sudbury, had been bankrupted in 1733) to "face paint" as he put it. Mr and Mrs Andrews contains the widest landscape of Gainsborough's portraits, and he would not return to such compositions. Future paintings would be set against neutral or typical rococo settings. It has been speculated that Gainsborough wished to show off his landscape ability to potential clients, to satisfy his personal preference, or his sitters' wishes.
Read more about Mr And Mrs Andrews: Scene, Critical Reception
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