Blue Boy And Pinkie

Pinkie Meets Blue Boy is a contemporary interpretation of the 18th century paintings by Thomas Gainsborough and Thomas Lawrence. The same person plays both characters, with the feminine Pinkie on the left, and masculine Blue Boy on the right.

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The Blue Boy is no Royal

Gainsborough painted The Blue Boy, an oil on canvas, around 1770 and drew inspiration from the 17th century Flemish painter Van Dyck and his Portrait of Charles, Lord Strange. Paying careful attention to his subjects and the fine details of their features and expressions, Gainsborough also believed in using the surrounding backdrop to set the scene for their mood and character. At heart, Gainsborough was far more inclined to paint landscapes and once famously admitted that he only painted portraits for the income they brought him but landscapes were his real love.

Blueboy and Pinkie #296 beautiful pictures $80.00 or B.O. 21 1/4 X 17 1/4 PINKIE AND BLUE BOY #296 - antiques - by owner - collectibles sale try the craigslist app » Android iOS. The lean and meek size of the actual book allows the reader to connect with subjects at a more intimate level compared to a large history filled textbook or catalog. Great for anyone who would like a small researched history of only two paintings; that of which are 'Pinkie and Blue Boy' in the Huntington collection. Pinkie & Blue Boy, L.L.C. Is a Louisiana Limited-Liability Company filed on March 11, 2005. The company's filing status is listed as Inactive and its File Number is 35896184K. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Clark J. Theriot and is located at 4415 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70115.

Despite giving the Blue Boy a regal yet relaxed appearance, the young lad in the painting is not a member of the royal family. For years, art historians pondered over his identity, with the final verdict being that he was Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant with whom Gainsborough had struck up a friendship.

The Inspiration for the Portrait

There are several theories about the inspiration for The Blue Boy. Some believe that Gainsborough may have painted him out of spite for his hated rival, the portrait artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. Roynolds held strong opinions about the use of colour in portraits and had specifically stated that paintings should always contain a warm, mellow colour, made up of yellows, reds or a yellowish white. Reynolds also thought that colder colours such as blue, grey and green should only play a supporting role to off-set these warmer colours. What's more, to achieve this, he believed that they should only be used very sparingly. In fact, The Blue Boy is quite the opposite, with blue clearly dominating the entire portrait.

The Painting's Journey over Time

The portrait was unveiled in 1770 at the Royal Academy and, as Gainsborough had hoped, it enjoyed a rave reception at this prestigious newly-opened venue. Viewers liked the vubrant colours and well-thought-through brush strokes, making it an instant success. The Blue Boy makes such an impact with its life-size dimensions, measuring 1.78 m x 1.12 m. Initially, the subject of the portrain, Jonathan Buttall, owned the painting. However, in 1796, he was declared bankrupt and sold it to John Nesbitt, a politician at the time. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the portrait fell into the hands of the well-known portrait artist, John Hoppner, but in 1809 it was sold to Earl Grosvenor. It remained in his family for over 100 years until it was sold by the second Duke of Westminster.

While the original painting was exhibited at the British Institution and the Royal Academy where it was subject to much critical acclaim, it was also reproduced as prints, which were available to the general public. By 1920, it had earned its place as one of the iconic pantings of English heritage. However, in 1921, The Blue Boy was sold to dealer Joseph Duveen and left England bound for America and a new home with railroad tycoon Henry Edwards Huntington. This caused an English outcry among many who were sickened by the portrait leaving its homeland.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that Huntington purchased the portrait for $728,800 (£182,200), which was a record breaking price at the time. The New York Times, reported the purchase price as being sold for $640,000 on 11 November 1921. This equals a staggering $8.5 million today. Ahead of The Blue Boy's departure for the U.S., it was exhibited for a final time by The National Gallery, attracting an incredible 90,000 people. Charles Holmes, director of the gallery, was so moved by the portrait's impending departure that he inscribed 'Au Revoir, C.H.' on the back, which was technically an act of vandalism!

A Home in the US and Fascinating Insights

Since arriving in the U.S., the painting has stayed there and is now part of the Huntington Library's collection in California. There, it shares the spotlight with another portrait from the collection, Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence, a pretty young girl dressed in pink. Lawrence was also an English portrait artist and painted Pinkie nearly a quarter of a centure after Gainsborough's The Blue Boy. However, the two portraits face eachother in the Huntington Library gallery, giving the appearance of the young subjects staring quizzically at one other.

There was a fascinating insight into the portrait's roots in 1939 when it was X-rayed, revealing that an unfinished painting of an older man had originally been painted onto the canvas before the boy covered him over. Another surprise followed in 1995 when the painting was again X-rayed, showing that Gainsborough had painted a dog next to the boy, but then covered it over with rocks.

The Blue Boy as a Contemporary Source of Inspiration

Over time, The Blue Boy has inspired other works of art. Indeed, in 1919, German film producer Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau created a film called Knabe in Blau (The Boy in Blue). Gainsborough's painting also encouraged pop artist Robert Rauschenberg to pick up a brush and start painting. More recently in 2010, The Blue Boy influenced Django Unchained, a western by Quentin Tarantino. In this film, the anti-hero wears a bright blue suit, the inrpiration for this being The Blue Boy as confirmed by costume designer Sharen Davis. In conclusion the portrain The Blue Boy is not just remarkable due to the boy's presence, but also his lavish costume, which stands out from the background, giving an air of confidence, grandeur and status.

Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy oil painting is a classic period work which has become one of the most famous British paintings of that time, and also a popular choice as art reproduction for those looking to add some classic British art to their own homes. Gainsborough was most famous for depicting full length portraits of high-standing people of the era with complex landscapes set across the background, which was relatively unusual at that time. The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough is a portrait of a young man, believed to be Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant. This was never fully confirmed, however.

Gainsborough is believed to have been influenced throughout his career by the workings of Van Dyck, and The Blue Boy offers great similarities to Van Dyck's portrait of Charles II when a boy. Thomas Gainsborough was just one of several key British artists from traditional movements such as Renaissance, Baroque and Romanticism who helped develop British artists. JMW Turner was a key painter from the latter, and you can find Turner paintings here. For those interested in famous British oil paintings, you may also like the Fighting Temeraire by William Turner. It features a classic Turner Romanticist seascape and remains that artist's most loved painting.

Pinkie is the traditional title for a portrait made in 1794 by Thomas Lawrence in the permanent collection of the Huntington Library at San Marino, California where it hangs opposite The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough. The title now given it by the museum is Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton: 'Pinkie'. These two works are the centerpieces of the institute's art collection, which specialises in eighteenth-century English portraiture. The painting is an elegant depiction of Sarah Moulton, who was about eleven years old when painted. Her direct gaze and the loose, energetic brushwork give the portrait a lively immediacy.^[1][2][3]

Origin[edit]

Sarah Moulton[edit]

Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton was born on 22 March 1783, in Little River, St. James, Jamaica.^[4] She was the only daughter and eldest of the four children of Charles Moulton, a merchant from Madeira, and his wife Elizabeth. Sarah was baptised on 29 May 1783, bearing the names Sarah Goodin Barrett in honour of her aunt, also named Sarah Goodin Barrett, who had died as an infant in 1781.^[4] She was a descendant of Hersey Barrett, who had arrived in Jamaica in 1655 with Sir William Penn and by 1783, the Barretts were wealthy landowners, slave owners, and exporters of sugar cane and rum.^[4] Inside her family, she was called Pinkie or Pinkey.

By the time Sarah was six, her father had left the family and her mother was left to raise the children, Sarah and her brothers Edward (1785–1857) and Samuel (1787–1837), with the help of her relatives. In September 1792, Sarah and her brothers sailed to England to get a better education. Sarah was sent to Mrs Fenwick's school at Flint House, Greenwich, along with other children from Jamaican colonial families.^[4] On 16 November 1793 Sarah's grandmother, Judith Barrett, wrote from Jamaica to her niece Elizabeth Barrett Williams, then living on Richmond Hill in Surrey, asking her to commission a portrait of 'my dear little Pinkey … as I cannot gratify my self with the Original, I must beg the favour of You to have her picture drawn at full Length by one of the best Masters, in an easy Careless attitude'. Sarah probably began sitting for Lawrence, painter-in-ordinary to George III, at his studio in Old Bond Street soon after the receipt of this letter on 11 February 1794.^[4]

One year later, on 23 April 1795, Sarah died at Greenwich, aged 12. A letter from her grandmother, four months before said that she had recovered from a cough. She was buried on 30 April 1795 in the doctor's vault under the parish church of St Alfege, Greenwich.^[4] She was the only Moulton child to die in childhood. Her portrait by Lawrence was placed on display in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1795, which opened the day after her burial. The painting was passed down within the family until 1910, passing at one point to Sarah's brother, Edward. Sarah's niece was the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.^[4]

History[edit]

Pinkie was first displayed at the 1795 Royal Academy summer exhibition.^[5] According to an official Huntington Library publication:

Many of the finest works by the most gifted English artists of the period were large formal portraits. Although most of the pictures were commissioned by the sitter, many were also intended for public display. They made their first appearances at the annual Royal Academy exhibition, which was then the principal artistic event of the year. A somewhat grand and rhetorical air was considered appropriate for this type of painting, and this artistic intention should be kept in mind when looking at the portraits in the Huntington collection.^[6]

The painting was one of the last acquisitions of California land developer Henry E. Huntington in 1927.^[2][7] In 1934 the Huntington foundation constructed a new main gallery as an addition to the former residence for the collection's major portraits. Except for brief intervals during travelling exhibitions, Pinkie has hung there since that time.^[8]

Relationship to The Blue Boy[edit]

Pinkie owes part of its notability to its association with the Gainsborough portrait The Blue Boy. According to Patricia Failing, author of Best-Loved Art from American Museums, 'no other work by a British artist enjoys the fame of The Blue Boy.'^[9]Pinkie and The Blue Boy are often paired in popular esteem; some gallery visitors mistake them for contemporaneous works by the same artist.^[10][11] The two were created by different painters a quarter century apart, however, and the dress styles of the subjects are separated by more than one hundred and fifty years. Jonathan Buttall, who posed for Gainsborough's portrait, wears a period costume of the early seventeenth century as an homage to Flemish Baroque painterAnthony van Dyck, whom Gainsborough held in particular esteem. Sarah Moulton wears the contemporary fashion of 1794.^[8][9] The faces and gaze of the boy and girl are perhaps similar enough for them to be thought brother and sister, but the two works had no association until Henry Huntington purchased them in the 1920s.^[10]

Nonetheless, the two are so well matched that William Wilson, author of The Los Angeles Times Book of California Museums, calls them 'the Romeo and Juliet of Rococo portraiture' and notes that their association borders on cliché:

They have decorated cocktail coasters, appeared in advertisements, and stopped the show as the tableaux vivants at the Laguna Beach 'Pageant of the Masters.' For all that, they remain intrinsically lovely…The continuing popularity of both pictures is based on more than the obvious. The subjects certainly are in the springtime of life, but their freshness is lent a certain poignancy by the rather grown-up garb that suggests both the transience of youth and the attempt to cling to it. Besides, both are extraordinarily fine pictures, easy and dramatic at once.^[11]

In popular culture[edit]

Pinkie is also used as a set decoration in the 1946 American film, Margie, and can be seen in the residence of Margie and her grandmother, located on the wall in the sitting room.

Pinkie and The Blue Boy can be seen in the pilot episode of Eerie, Indiana.^{[citation needed]}

The paintings are used as set decorations for many episodes of the American television show, Leave It to Beaver. The two paintings are located on the wall immediately to the left and right side of the front door of the family home.

The Blue Boy also appears in the film Coraline above the fireplace in the Pink Palace. He appears sad in the real realm but appears happy in the other world.^{[citation needed]}

In the film Joker, Pinkie and Blue Boy are both seen hanging on the wall of Arthur and Penny Fleck's apartment near the television set.^[12]

References[edit]

Citations

1. ^Wilson 1984, pp. 195–8
2. ^ ^abRitchie 1986, p. 18
3. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. ^ ^abcdefgRetford, Kate (October 2005). 'Sarah Moulton'. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. oxforddnb.com. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93084. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
5. ^Ritchie 1986, p. 3
6. ^Bernal 1992, p. 32
7. ^Pomeroy 1983, p. 12
8. ^ ^abBernal 1992, p. 33
9. ^ ^abFailing 1983, p. 29
10. ^ ^abBernal 1992, p. 34
11. ^ ^abWilson 1984, p. 198
12. ^Andrew Dyce. 'Joker Trailer Breakdown: 15 Story Reveals & Secrets'. screenrant.com. Retrieved 14 October 2019.

Works cited

Blue Boy And Pinkie Prints

• Bernal, Peggy Park (1992). The Huntington: Library, Art Collections, Botanical Gardens. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Failing, Patricia (1983). Best-Loved Art from American Museums. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Pomeroy, Elizabeth (1983). The Huntington: Library, Art Gallery, Botanical Gardens. London: Scala/Philip Wilson.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ritchie, Ward (1986). The Huntington Art Collections: A Handbook. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Wilson, William (1984). The Los Angeles Times Book of California Museums. New York: Harry Abrams, Inc.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

• Secrest, Meryle (2004). Duveen: A Life in Art. New York: Random House, Inc. ISBN978-0-226-74415-5.

Blue Boy And Pinkie

External links[edit]

Blue Boy And Pinkie Painting Value