From childhood and beyond
Early Gainsborough: From the obscurity of a Country Town’, at Gainsborough’s House, 46, Gainsborough Street, Sudbury, Suffolk until February 17 (01787 372958; www.gainsborough.org), sheds light on the young artist through 40 works, including Wooded Landscape with Herdsman Seated (above, 1746–47), showing the early influence of Dutch 17th-century landscapes, as well as portraits and etchings from the 1750s. Born in the market town of Sudbury, Gainsborough went to London aged 13 to study under Gravelot and Hayman, returning to Suffolk, newly married, in his early twenties. The exhibition presents new discoveries—notably that two family members were the victims of revenge killings—and is complemented by the paintings from different periods and places of his life displayed in the museum that was his childhood home.