Who painted 'Mr and Mrs Robert Andrews', 'The Watering Place' and The Blue Boy'?
Mr and Mrs Andrews of the country estate that had formed part of Mrs Andrews' dowry. Thomas Gainsborough was about twenty-three when he painted "Mr and Mrs Andrews" in 1750. He had married the pregnant Margaret Burr and returned to Sudbury, Suffolk, his home town as well as that of the Andrews, after an apprenticeship in London with the French artist Hubert-François Gravelot, from whom he learnt the French rococo style. There, he also picked up a love of landscapes in the Dutch style. However, landscape painting was far less prestigious and poorly paid compared to portraits and Gainsborough was forced (since the family
Mr and Mrs Andrews thought that this was an invention of Gainsborough's, drawing on his period with Gravelot. Gainsborough had painted (probably in London) Frances's parents in his "Mr and Mrs Carter of Bullingdon House, Bulmer, Essex" in about 1747–1748 (now Tate Britain). This painting makes an interesting comparison with that of the Andrews in many respects. Frances Jamineau, who became Mrs Carter, was of French parentage, and whether she and her husband were really as disproportionate in size as Gainsborough paints them is unknown. The neat parallel rows of corn produced by Jethro Tull's revolutionary and controversial seed drill show that this is