Good-looking, gay, witty young Tom Gainsborough made many friends in London, but after three years he had had no commissions for paintings and it was as a painter that he was resolved to earn his living. Thinking that things might be better in the country, he moved to Sudbury where he painted the countryside he loved so much. Here he met Margaret Burr whom he married in 1746.

For a few years the Gainsboroughs lived on Margaret's income. However, before his two daughters were more than a few years old, he was at last recognized as a promising painter by wealthy Philip Thicknesse of Ipswich. From then on Tom's portraits and landscapes, his "fancy pictures" were in great demand. He painted royalty and actors and the county folk and their children. He exhibited his paintings in London when he bought Schomberg House. It was here that he settled with his family, and here he died in 1788.

This biography of a great English painter brings to life a loveable and talented figure that boys and girls will understand and enjoy.

From the dust jacket