Exhibition

The Painting Room

26 Jan 2016 – 21 Feb 2016

Regular hours

Tuesday
10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 17:00
Thursday
10:00 – 17:00
Friday
10:00 – 17:00
Saturday
10:00 – 17:00
Sunday
10:00 – 17:00
Monday
10:00 – 17:00

Cost of entry

Including Gift Aid:
Adults: £6.50
Family £15.00
Children and students: £2.00
Under 5s: Free

Group Admissions
Adult: £5.00
Students/children: £2.00

Free with the Art Pass

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Gainsborough's House

Sudbury
Suffolk, United Kingdom

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Travel Information

  • Sudbury
  • Sudbury
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The Painting Room is the first exhibition to explore the mysterious world of the 18th century painter’s studio featuring, as its centrepiece, an innovative recreation of a Georgian painting room.

About

The groundbreaking Painting Room exhibition at Gainsborough’s House is the culmination of prolonged research on the spaces where 18th-century artists painted. Thomas Gainsborough RA referred to portraiture as the ‘cursed face business’ and it was in the painting room that he would invite patrons to sit. Included in the exhibition are historically significant artefacts from prominent painters (such as Sir Joshua Reynolds RA’s rarely exhibited Sitters Chair and Easel, on loan from the Royal Academyas well as works by artists that illustrate the Painting Room as it was in the 18th Century.

 

The painting room was the private inner sanctum of the artist containing the tools and instruments of their practice. It was in this space that their ideas were worked out onto canvas with their sitters. Any prospective patrons would instead be led to the show room. Until now, this kept the painting room a secretive and exclusive space. Gainsborough’s House’s recreation aims to convey the atmosphere and delight that the painting room held for visitors before artists could afford 
purpose-built studios.

What to expect? Toggle

CuratorsToggle

Sophie Woods

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Thomas Gainsborough

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