Thomas Gainsborough Quotes

17 Sourced Quotes

I grow dauntless as I grow old, I believe any one that plods on in any one way, especially if that one way will bring him bread & cheese, will grow the same.

Thomas Gainsborough
We love a genius for what he leaves and mourn him for what he takes away

Thomas Gainsborough
Whilst a Face painter is harassed to death a drapery painter sits & earns 5 or 6 hundered a year & laughs all the while

Thomas Gainsborough
I am sick of portraits and wish very much to take up my viol da Gamba and walk off to some sweet village when I can paint landskips and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease.

Thomas Gainsborough
To a lawyer about 'the painter's eye':
The painter's eye is to him what the lawyer's tongue is to you.

Thomas Gainsborough
There is a genius (in our sense of the word) shines in all he (John Dunning) says. I begin to think there is something in the air of Devonshire that grows clever fellows I could name 4 or 5, superior to the product of any other county of England

Thomas Gainsborough
Last words:
We are all going to Heaven, and Vandyke is of the company.

Thomas Gainsborough
I wish you would recollect that Painting and Punctuality mix like Oil and Vinegar, and that Genius and regularity are uttee Enemies

Thomas Gainsborough
There is a branch of painting next in profit to Portrait and quite within your power without any more drawing them I'm answer for you having, which is Drapery & Landskip.

Thomas Gainsborough
Fools talk of imitation and copying, all is imitation

Thomas Gainsborough
Many a real genius is lost in the fictitious character of the Gentleman. I am the most inconsistent, changeable being so full of fits and starts.

Thomas Gainsborough
On painting two actors:
Rot them for a couple of rogues, they have everybody's faces but their own.

Thomas Gainsborough
Though I'm a rogue in talking upon Painting & Love I can be serious and honest upon any subject thoroughly pleasing to me.

Thomas Gainsborough
Damn gentlemen. There is not such a set of enemies to a real artist in the world as they are, if not kept at a proper distance.

Thomas Gainsborough
I hate being confined in Harness to follow the track, whilst others ride in the wagon, under cover, stretching their legs in the straw at ease and gazing at Green trees and Blue skies.

Thomas Gainsborough
Recollect that painting and punctuality mix like oil and vinegar, and that genius and regularity are utter enemies, and must be to the end of time.

Thomas Gainsborough
I must own your calculations & comparisons betwixt our different professions to be just, provided you remember that in mine a Man may do great things and starve in a garret if he does not conquer his Passions.

Thomas Gainsborough