Jeffrey Ford 11/2/2019
The masterpiece “Mr. and Mrs. Andrews”, by
Thomas Gainsborough was painted around 1750 and is often characterized as a
‘triple’ portrait. At the time of this painting and even today, art historians
and critics alike see the painting as three fold. First would be Mr. Andrews,
his depiction as husband of Frances and then lord of 3,000 fertile acres. Mr.
Robert Andrews is shown holding providence over his young wife Frances and the
lands he inherited through the marriage. The couple were likely the product of
an arranged marriage by the parents of Robert and Frances, her dowry was half
of the land. However just weeks after their wedding, the father of Frances
passed away and the entire estate came to Robert. It is believed the painting
was commissioned for this occasion and Thomas Gainsborough, a childhood friend
of the couple was chosen. As the story of the Andrews’ unfolds, we see how
Gainsborough depicted the power of the male gender in the form of dowry,
inheritance and control of property as means to wealth and status; and their
place in the landscape of eighteenth century England.
The family of Robert Andrews had no noble
blood line; however they were known to be wealthy. The elder Andrews was in the
real estate business deriving profit from rents. More importantly he obtained
his wealth as a money lender by charging exorbitant rates to royals and the
modest alike. Gainsborough had grown up with and gone to school with the
subjects, yet enjoyed none of the privileges of Robert and Frances. Reportedly
the father of Robert had loaned money to Gainsborough’s father during hard
times which may have attributed to some animosity held by the painter. The
budding landscape painter had not entered his noteworthy phase when called upon
to depict the new found conglomeration of the Andrews and Carter families. His
passion of portraying the land and at this stage the weather, he found in the
Andrews commission the patrons for making his landscape painting known. While
portraiture shown in landscape was new, even the casual observer will agree
that while the couple is featured prominently and respectfully, or so it seems,
they are not the subject of the painting.
The artist quite possibly set Mr. and Mrs.
Andrews seemingly in control of the landscape, but he also hints to the social
contrivances by which they obtained it and furthermore leaves a more obvious
question as to who may hold it next. Gainsborough shows not only the Andrews’,
hunting dog and land, but dapples within the shadows of the trees and hills
beyond enough of the subject’s historical attributes to keep the commissioner’s
eye on their view of the landscape, while interjecting his own perceptions. Thomas
subtly added the church where they were married and the large home where they
lived possibly to show, along with the land that there was nothing in the
painting that truly belonged to Robert Andrews. (Figure 1). Gainsborough said
he “hated painting faces” and perhaps due to his personal history with the
Andrews’, he may have hated painting those faces in particular.
At this time in the mid eighteenth century
non noble land owners and those in business had no modern contrivances such as
corporate mergers, buy-outs and take overs, rather they consolidated economic
power through lineage. Upon examination, Mrs. Andrews lap is left without
intent or purpose deserving of such a prominent place more than any other. As
they were just married, the first of eight children had yet to arrive. Art
critics postulate her lap was saved for their first born and subsequent heir. Never
to be added, a babe in arms may have changed the depiction altogether. (Figure
2). Gainsborough reveals the social landscape of 1750 patriarchal England beginning
with the fathers of Robert and Frances. Sealing the future of their wealth by a
merger, Gainsborough was for his own purposes eager to portray this gender
inequality. Mr. Andrews with hunting rifle in hand, dog at his feet is shown
boy faced with Greek “contrapposto” depicting him as being relaxed and calm, an
ideal man of even temperament. First seen in c. 480 B.C. the style depicted a
sense of divinity on young men. Revived throughout the Renaissance contrapposto
had lost it’s appeal some fifty years before Gainsborough. Yet, the combination
of portrait in landscape and stormy skies popular with the Dutch was novel and
the young painter was out to make a statement. If there are three paintings in
one as many say, then there are also may be only two, the Andrews’ and the
land.
The Essex countryside is seen today much as
it was in the days of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, rolling hills, fruitful plains and
a massive oak, the same tree that relayed the strength and longevity of the
people and the land. The newlyweds and the artist are inextricably entwined
from the start, both parties with a questionable beginning, Gainsborough made
the Andrews’ famous and they he as well. While they are all long gone, the
power struggles of class and gender continue today, just as the land remains.
It could be that is what Thomas Gainsborough was trying to portray by setting
his representative figures before the mighty oak, that these social norms outlive
generations and do not die easily. However, if one follows the furrows in the field,
they are drawn by the perspective eye of the true beholder of the land, not
Robert Andrew, but the viewer.
The National Galley, Trafalgar Square,
London, WC2N 5DN
