The Pitminster Boy

This remarkably fresh and informal portrait is likely to be Gainsborough’s nephew and studio apprentice, Gainsborough Dupont (1754-97). For many years it has been known as 'The Pitminster Boy', after a village in Somerset where it was thought a boy was hired to be an impromptu studio assistant for the artist. The painting was exhibited at the first Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1769, where it was exhibited as ‘A Boy’s Head’ alongside major full-length portraits. Gainsborough Dupont was born in December 1754, so when it was exhibited at the Academy in Pall Mall, he was fourteen years old. He was formally apprenticed to Gainsborough in 1772 and became a student of the Royal Academy in 1775. He acted as a studio assistant. He also created mezzotints after Gainsborough’s paintings and painted in his uncle’s style. Simply depicted in a feigned oval, it is an intimate and affectionate portrait of the young teenage Dupont.

On loan from a Private Collection