Gainsborough, Murder and a Small Fortune
Morning Lecture
20 March 2024
Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire by Thomas Gainsborough
Much of Gainsborough's early life is shrouded in mystery. How did this boy, the son of a bankrupt Sudbury weaver, become a national treasure and one of the greatest painters of his age?
Mark Bills' lecture explores how Thomas Gainsborough became an artist and reveals the recently discovered story of the family murders that shook the family and ended with the young Gainsborough moving to London to become an artist. It explores the development of this very British genius through his paintings and his own words, and includes the new developments at Gainsborough's House in Sudbury as it creates a national centre for the artist.
Mark Bills studied at the Slade School of Art and at the universities of Birmingham and Manchester. He was Curator at the Watts Gallery and Curator of the Gainsborough Museum, and lectures regularly at the Tate, Russell-Cotes Gallery, Museum of London, Guildhall Art Gallery, Bristol University and Mercer Art Gallery. He has also presented talks in New York and Finland.
His publications include George Frederic Watts: Victorian Visionary (2008), The Art of Satire: London in Caricature (2006) and William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age (2006).
Mark Bills