Theme: Francis Drake, his life and deeds

Career

Suffolk

In 1746, Gainsborough married Margaret Burr, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, who had settled a £200 annuity on her. The artist's work, then mostly consisting of landscape paintings, was not selling well. He returned to Sudbury in 1748–1749 and concentrated on painting portraits. While still in Suffolk, Gainsborough painted a portrait of The Rev. John Chafy Playing a Violoncello in a Landscape (c.1750–1752; Tate Gallery, London).
In 1752, he and his family, now including two daughters, Mary ("Molly", 1750–1826) and Margaret ("Peggy", 1751–1820), moved to Ipswich. Commissions for portraits increased, but his clients included mainly local merchants and squires. He had to borrow against his wife's annuity. Toward the end of his time in Ipswich, he painted a self-portrait, now in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Reputation

Portrait of Mrs Mary Graham (1777) Scottish National Gallery

The Harvest Wagon (1767)
His more famous works, The Blue Boy; Mr and Mrs Andrews; Portrait of Mrs. Graham; Mary and Margaret: The Painter's Daughters; William Hallett and His Wife Elizabeth, nee Stephen, known as The Morning Walk; and Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher, display the unique individuality of his subjects. Joshua Reynolds considered Girl with Pigs "the best picture he (Gainsborough) ever painted or perhaps ever will".
Gainsborough's works became popular with collectors from the 1850s on, after Lionel de Rothschild began buying his portraits. The rapid rise in the value of pictures by Gainsborough and also by Reynolds in the mid 19th century was partly because the Rothschild family, including Ferdinand de Rothschild began collecting them.
In 2011, Gainsborough's portrait of Miss Read (Mrs Frances Villebois) was sold by Michael Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray, for a record price of £6.54M, at Christie's in London. She was a matrilineal descendant of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York.

References:

1. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gainsborough
   
2. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben
   
3. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales
   
4. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake
   
5. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_District - :~:text=The%20Lake%20District%2C%20also%20known,Beatrix%20Potter%20and%20John%20Ruskin.
   
6. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Park_(entrepreneur)
   
7. 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square