Thomas Gainsborough’s earliest known self-portrait could fetch £40k at auction

THE earliest known self-portrait by 18th-century British painter Thomas Gainsborough is to be sold at auction.

Gainsborough (1727-88) is thought to have created the artwork aged 13 in 1740, soon after moving to London from Sudbury in Suffolk.

The artwork, right, is to be sold at auction at Cheffins in Cambridge, where it is expected to fetch more than £40,000.

Nicolas Martineau, an associate in the fine art team at Cheffins, said: “This painting represents an exciting glimpse into Gainsborough’s early career and is the first of a series of selfportraits made throughout his life, as well as being thought by scholars to be one of his earliest attempts at working in oil.

“The picture shows an important step in

Gainsborough’s development to becoming the leading portraitist in 18th-century England and it is a privilege to be offering it here at Cheffins in his native East Anglia.”

Gainsborough, who later lived in Bath and has a luxury hotel in the city named after him, was a weaver’s son who became a founding member of the Royal Academy.

Among his portraits were King George III and Queen Charlotte.

The self-portrait had been held by a Londonbased private collection since 2008 and has previously been exhibited at Tate Britain, The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

It is to be sold as part of The Fine Sale at Cheffins in Cambridge on April 21.