Mr and Mrs Andrews

Robert Andrews stands with his gun while Frances sits on an elegant bench. The couple occupy only one side of the picture. A wide view of fields, trees and changing sky takes up the rest, making the land a major participant in their portrait. Thomas Gainsborough, an English painter from nearby Sudbury, made the picture around 1750, shortly after their marriage. Robert owned extensive property in the area, and much of the view belonged to him. Carefully tended crops and well-stocked pastures help describe their wealth. Gainsborough also gives the countryside a convincing atmosphere. Follow the light across the field towards the more distant land, then the shifting clouds above. His skill as a landscape painter becomes part of the couple’s presentation of themselves. An unpainted patch remains on Frances’s lap. It may have been reserved for a later addition, but its intended contents are uncertain. The gap interrupts an otherwise highly arranged image, reminding us that even this apparently settled view contains something unresolved.