Dimensions: support: 578 x 457 mm frame: 839 x 719 x 83 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Abel Moysey. There isn't a specific date, but it gives off the air of the late 18th century. The subject seems lost in thought. What do you see in this piece? Curator: This work speaks to the power dynamics inherent in portraiture of the time. Moysey, a member of the landed gentry, is presented in a pose of studied leisure. How does this calculated presentation reinforce social hierarchies? Editor: I guess it's about showing his status and education, not just his likeness. Curator: Exactly! It's a performance of class, isn't it? And consider the artist's role in perpetuating that image. Editor: That makes me think about who gets to be seen and how. Thanks! Curator: Glad to share these thoughts!
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Abel Moysey was a well-known doctor based in the fashionable spa town of Bath, where Gainsborough was also worked. Gainsborough painted this portrait in lieu of doctor’s fees, presumably for the treatment he received after a bout of venereal disease, contracted from prostitutes in London in 1763. Moysey is shown looking dreamily into the distance, as if he was unaware of being painted. He is every bit the ‘man of feeling’. Gallery label, September 2004
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