Catalogue: Gainsborough and the Theatre

We knew we wanted to do an exhibition on the 18th-century British painter Thomas Gainsborough at the Holburne Museum, but were undecided on the direction to take. 

The art historian Hugh Belsey and the author Susan Sloman, both experts on Gainsborough, were invited onto the project as guest curators. Eventually, it was agreed that we would focus on Gainsborough’s portraits of his friends in theatre and examine  the close-knit relationships of the leading actors, musicians, dancers, designers, critics and theatre managers of the 1760s-80s. 

The Rijksmuseum Twenthe, in Enschede in the Netherlands, put on the exhibition, Gainsborough in His Own Words in 2016, which included a section on theatre and music. Another reference point was a 2011 show at London’s National Portrait Gallery titled The First Actresses, which focused on female performers of this period. Yet, surprisingly, there had not been a UK exhibition dedicated to Gainsborough’s relationships with those in the theatrical world for a long time. 

A large proportion of our exhibition visitors buy our catalogues. Aside from the commercial opportunity, publishing it would also allow us to expand on the themes the show would explore. It was decided that Sloman would write essays on the intertwined relationships and on Gainsborough and naturalism, while Belsey would do catalogue entries detailing biographies of each of the sitters and place them in the context of the exhibition.  

The exhibition and catalogue provide a fascinating examination of celebrity endorsement in the 18th century and highlight the symbiotic relationship between the artist and leading theatrical figures of the day. Just as actors used to have calling cards, these portraits could be viewed as Gainsborough’s equivalent – and the sitters were happy to oblige, aware of the benefits.  

The exhibition brings together some of the most exquisitely beautiful paintings from private and public collections, all of which are documented in the catalogue. 

We had worked successfully with Philip Wilson Publishers on a number of occasions and chose to work with the firm again for this project. We knew it would help us to produce a catalogue that was visually engaging as  well as academically stimulating. The catalogue was supported by a Publications Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London. 

We had a lengthy lead-in time for the catalogue, but it was still tricky to juggle the copy and image deadlines in sync with the loans that were being secured for the exhibition. Copyright permissions were straightforward, just rather expensive, because we wanted to have as many full page images as our budget would permit.  

We worked closely with the publisher on the page layouts so that we could ensure certain images were given the right amount of prominence. The main heading’s typeface befits the theme: it is theatrical as a mixture of Garamond and Baskerville. 

There was some discussion on who should be on the front cover but the National Gallery’s Mrs Siddons was a clear winner. Similarly, there was no doubt that the expressive watercolour by Nathaniel Dance belonging to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, a sketch of the dancer Auguste Vestris in action, had to go on the back. 

Producing such a catalogue was not without its challenges, but it was a rewarding experience to see it all come together.