Mr and Mrs Andrews
Mr. and Mrs. Andrews is the title of an oil painting by the English painter Thomas Gainsborough. Gainsborough was a little older than 20 years old when he painted the double portrait of the young married couple. In the picture are two genres of painting, portrait and landscape painting, united. Both are among the specialties of the painter.
Robert Andrews and his country seat
In November 1748, the 22 -year-old country squire Robert Andrews had married 17-year- old Francis Mary Carter. Andrews let himself and his young wife in the open at his country estate, the farm Auberies at Sudbury in Suffolk, portray. In the picture the young couple takes as much space as the representation of the cultivated landscape that extends far from the gaze of the viewer.
The English landed gentry of the 18th century had taken in Holland developed new methods of farming with enthusiasm. The new farming methods led to increases in income, the demand for food could be satisfied by the rapidly growing population. The cultivation of new feeds, eg clover, led simultaneously to increase the game population, which also hunting, the favorite occupation of the nobility, was entertaining and successful. The study of the management of his estates, supported by the study of a growing number of books, almost a fashionable, albeit a rather playful than serious study of the landlords was.
In the image - created in the course of his marriage - the pride Andrews reflects on the flowering family owned and hides the hope of an equally prosperous continuance of his family.
Description
The pair is located on the left half of the image against a mighty oak tree. The young woman, dressed in a light blue silk dress, sitting on an ornate Rococo bank which is almost completely covered by her skirt. Next to her, leaning in a casual attitude - in the tradition of male portraits with crossed legs - the husband. With his right hand in his pocket, he has the shotgun clamped casually under his arm, while the supported left elbow on the back of the bench. Clothed he is hunting with a bright skirt, black knee-breeches, white stockings, buckled shoes and a tricorn hat, look out daintily from the two curls. The Pied hunting dog at his side looks to give to his Lord. A breaking forth from the clouds sun ray falls on the couple and brings the silk fabric of the clothes shine. An important part of the picture remained unfinished: What Mrs. Andrews should keep in her lap in the hands, the imagination of the artist is left on Gainsborough's picture just a bright spot Malgrundierung can be seen. The landscape, the area close to the couple is a typical well-kept English culture landscape with wheat fields, groves, hedges with fenced meadows where sheep and horses graze and elongated hills on the horizon. What is striking is the complete absence of active people whose hands is due to work the appearance of this idyllic landscape.
Strange is the stiff, doll-like attitude of the couple. Gainsborough is known that he like his teacher Francis Hayman people sketched from nature, for the execution of clothes, positions and the arrangement in the picture, however, used dolls. The picture was not painted so in nature, but in the studio composed of different studies. This leads to the striking contrast between the artificiality of the characters and the naturalistic impression of the landscape. Composed Artificial seems also the season in the image. While the leaves of the trees in a spring-like green shimmers like the yellowish green meadow carpet, the fields are already harvested and bundled the grain.