The Blue Boy

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The Blue Boy
Thomas Gainsborough, circa 1770
oil on canvas
177.8 × 112.1 cm
Huntington Library, San Marino, California

The Blue Boy (c. 1770) is an oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough that now resides in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. The painting itself is on a fairly large canvas for a portrait that measures 48 inches wide by 70 inches tall. Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant. Gainsborough had originally painted something different on the canvas but then decided to paint the portrait of the blue boy over it. It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in his 17th-century apparel is regarded as Gainsborough's homage to Anthony Van Dyck.

It is said that Gainsborough painted the portrait mainly to prove to his chief rival Joshua Reynolds that it was possible to use blue as the central color of a portrait. This has been discredited since the rumor began circulating after Gainsborough's death and Reynolds had painted portraits in blue long before.

The painting was in Jonathan Buttall's possession until he filed for bankruptcy in 1796. It was bought first by the politician John Nesbitt and then, in 1802, by the portrait painter John Hoppner. In about 1809 The Blue Boy entered the collection of the Earl Grosvenor and remained with this descendants until its sale by the second Duke of Westminster to the dealer Joseph Duveen in 1921. In a move that caused a public outcry in Britain, it was then sold on to the American railway pioneer Henry Edwards Huntington for $182,200 (then a record price for any painting). Before its departure to California in 1922, The Blue Boy was briefly put on display at the National Gallery where it was seen by 90,000 people; the Gallery's director Charles Holmes was moved to scrawl "Au revoir" on the back of the painting. What may be a surprise to many, the painting received its name not only in recognition of the color of the boy's vetements, but also because the boy was known by his relatives to be a habitual thumb sucker. This often led to the boy's left-hand thumb being a dark shade of blue, the hand which the boy is hiding in the painting.

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

  • Cole Porter's 1922 song "Blue Boy Blues", lamenting the Blue Boy's fate, was composed shortly after the painting was sold to Huntington.
  • In the 1929 Laurel and Hardy short Wrong Again, the pair learn that a reward is being offered for The Blue Boy, which they believe to be not a painting but rather a prize horse at the stable where they work. Hilarity ensues as they attempt to deposit the horse at the home of the painting's wealthy owner.
  • In Die Another Day (2002), James Bond manages to slice through the painting with a sword whilst sparring.
  • In Cinderella III (2007) Gus gus appears dressed as the Blue Boy in a painting in the end credits.

[edit] References

  • Conisbee, Philip. The Ones That Got Away, essay from Saved! 100 Years of the National Art Collection Fund (2003, ed. Richard Verdi). London: Scala
  • Conlin, Jonathan (2006). The Nation's Mantelpiece: A history of the National Gallery. London: Pallas Athene
  • Tyler, David. Jonathan Buttall in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art39.htm
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