Thomas Gainsborough is the most perennially popular of British artists, admired for the grandeur of his society portraits and his sumptuous pastoral landscapes. In his life and art he wished to project an image of effortless accomplishment, demonstrated by a dazzling painting techniques and immense personal charm. He was also competitive, opinionated and possessed of a finely tuned business brain. This book traces Gainsborough's career from boyhood to the pinnacle of commercial success at the court of George III. Martin postle reassesses the artist's attitudes towards the central aspect of his art - landscape and portraiture. This title forms part of Tate Publishing's British Artists series.