New York, Feb 10 (EFE).- In the portraits of the English painter Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), which arrive this week at The Frick Collection in New York, you can see in detail how 18th century British society used its clothing and accessories to convey social status.
Some of the patterns that can be seen in the 25 portraits that make up the exhibition “Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture” are pompous pastel-colored dresses full of lace and flowers on their hands, for women, and dark suits with pristine white leggings and family rings on their pinkies, for men.
The exhibition will open its doors on February 12, within the framework of New York Fashion Week, and will remain until May 25.
The jewel in the crown of this exhibition, the first in the city dedicated exclusively to Gainsborough portraits, is the portrait of the Duchess of Montagu.
“It presents the duchess with dignity, celebrating the beauty of middle age through a sensitive articulation of the fine lines and contours of her face. Her restrained expression contrasts with the cascade of pink fabric and her sumptuous outfit: a blue silk dress ‘à la française’ adorned with lace ‘engageantes’ (false sleeves) at the elbows, a white shawl and a lace scarf covering her chest,” the museum notes.
The accessories: cluster earrings with up to two hundred diamonds and a five-strand pearl necklace.
According to the exhibition’s curator, Aimee Ng, this exhibition explores how fashion was understood in Gainsborough’s time, how it touched all levels of society and how the portrait itself was as much a construction and invention as the style of the sitter.
The exhibition not only shows nobles before the hunt or walking with family or friends, but also figures on the margins of society, such as the musician and writer Ignatius Sancho.
Sancho, who was the first known Afro-British to vote in parliamentary elections and to receive an obituary in the British press, posed for Gainsborough when he worked for the Duke and Duchess of Montagu.
“In his only portrait of a black sitter, Gainsborough omits any trace of Sancho’s status as a servant. Instead, he presents Sancho dressed and posed as a gentleman, with one hand tucked into his waistcoat,” The Frick Collection notes.
The exhibition also includes portraits of canines, such as ‘Pomeranian and Puppy’ which manages, according to the museum, to “capture the appearances and personalities of dogs just as in their portraits of people.”
As part of the exhibition and the celebration of Fashion Week in the Big Apple, The Frick Collection organizes several activities, such as a presentation by curator Ng on “the rich and complex world of art and fashion in 18th century Great Britain” or another on Gainsborough, fashion and the royal family by Anna Reynolds, curator of the King’s Paintings of the United Kingdom.
On April 30 there will be a symposium on fashion and its representation in early modern Europe, and in the library there is a special reading list called ‘Fashion at the Frick’.
Finally, in the museum gardens facing Fifth Avenue, there will be a display of bulbs inspired by the Gainsborough exhibition that seeks to evoke the garden of an English country house.
“As spring progresses, the planting will evolve from snowdrops to double-flowered tulips and Persian lilies,” the museum notes in a statement.
Sarah Yáñez-Richards
(c) EFE Agency
date: 2026-02-11 02:40:00