John and Henry Trueman Villebois 1783

Thomas Gainsborough painted ‘John and Henry Trueman Villebois’ in Britain, sometime in the late 18th century. It is a portrait in oil on canvas. Gainsborough was a master of the ‘swagger portrait’, a popular and lucrative genre that helped to define the public face of Britain’s ruling class. This painting shows the sons of a wealthy merchant. Here we can see a family using its wealth to project an image of refinement by associating themselves with the visual codes of the aristocracy, such as classical architecture. The game being played is a far cry from the reality of the commercial transactions that funded their lifestyle. The portrait flattens social complexities and idealizes a highly stratified society. By studying the artist’s correspondence and the commercial history of portraiture, we can gain an even better understanding of how images like these both reflected and helped to shape Britain’s social hierarchy.