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Look at the feathery strokes that build the lace of her cap and the white bow at her chest, then at her steady gaze.
Gainsborough is best known for grand full-length portraits of society figures, but the small portraits he made of his relatives are direct and personal. This is his older sister Sarah, who married a carpenter, Philip Dupont, in their hometown of Sudbury in Suffolk. The portrait was probably painted for her husband and stayed in the Dupont family until 1874.
Oil on canvas · 77.2 × 64.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Rococo
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Sarah Dupont
- Artist
- Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727–1788)
- Date
- c. 1777–79
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 77.2 × 64.5 cm (30 3/8 × 25 3/8 in.); Framed: 95.3 × 84.5 × 8.9 cm (37 1/2 × 33 1/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection; through prior gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Denison B. Hull, Mr. and Mrs. William Kimball, and Mrs. Charles McCulloch
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.