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Portrait of George Pitt, First Baron Rivers
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Although George Pitt reputedly led a life of debauchery and was a cruel husband, Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait endows him with an aura of dignity and refinement. This work was painted between Pitt’s appointments as ambassador to Turin, Italy, and Madrid, Spain, but he is very much the English gentleman at home on his country estate. Gainsborough balances the deep scarlet and green facing of Pitt’s military uniform with the cool, woodland landscape painted with wide, liquid brushstrokes of mauves, grays, and silvers.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePortrait of George Pitt, First Baron Rivers, 1769. Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727–1788). Oil on canvas; framed: 261 x 181 x 9 cm (102 3/4 x 71 1/4 x 3 9/16 in.); unframed: 234.3 x 154.3 cm (92 1/4 x 60 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1971.2
