William Pitt
Thomas Gainsborough frames this distinguished gentleman, William Pitt, within a clever painted oval that mimics a decorative stone relief, a trick of the eye known as trompe-l'œil. Dressed in the height of 18th-century fashion with a voluminous powdered wig, a crisp white ruffled cravat, and a deep blue coat, Pitt stares out with a calm, piercing gaze. Gainsborough was a master of the British Rococo style who actually preferred painting landscapes over portraits, famously complaining that portrait painting was a 'sickening' trade, yet his feathery brushstrokes here bring incredible life and texture to the subject.
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