Portrait of William Philp Perrin, Thomas Gainsborough

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Hugh Belsey This portrait, which shows the sitter dressed in an academic gown, was originally larger and depicted him seated in a library. The sitter has previously been identified as John Shrimpton. However since there is no record that Shrimpton ever attended university, new research suggests that this painting instead portrays William Philp Perrin (1742-1820). The portrait hung for many years in West Farleigh Hall, which Perrin purchased in 1774. Perrin studied at Oxford University, where he befriended the botanist Sir Joseph Banks, with whom he maintained a lively correspondence. He converted one of the rooms at West Farleigh Hall into a library for his growing collection of books. Archive Label 2003: Gainsborough increasingly deviated from the canon that portraits must incorporate elements from history painting (i.e. the sitter must be draped in antique garments and posed heroically). His rebellion against the “elevated subject” resulted in portraits that stressed contemporary likenesses painted with economical brushstrokes and an emphasis on the sitter’s personality, with, in Gainsborough’s words, “a return to modest truth.” They also represent a compromise Gainsborough made with convention. Painting portraits for gentlemen like Mr. Shrimpton promised Gainsborough a certain measure of prosperity and upward mobility that freed him to pursue his primary interest, landscape painting. This portrait of Mr. John Shrimpton of West Farleigh Hall in southeast England was probably commissioned and executed in the fashionable resort of Bath, Gainsborough’s home until 1774 and a gathering place for those who wished to exhibit and pursue status.