''Portrait of Ann Ford'' is a 1760

portrait painting Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

by the British

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...

of the

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

Ann Ford. He depicts Ford at full-length, sitting cross-legged while looking to the right. She is holding a

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

with one hand and stroking her hair with the other. Gainsborough had moved to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

the previous year, producing portraits of inhabitants and visitors to the fashionable

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

. The painting had the aim of promoting both Ford's career and his growing reputation as a portraitist. Two years later Ford married Gainsborough's friend the

travel writer The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered ...

Philip Thicknesse Captain Philip Thicknesse (1719 – 23 November 1792) was a British Army officer and writer who was a friend of the artist Thomas Gainsborough. He wrote several travel guides. Early life Philip Thicknesse was born in Staffordshire, England, so ...

. Today the painting is in the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

.''The Collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum''. The Museum, 2000. p.193

References

Bibliography

* Hamilton, James. ''Gainsborough: A Portrait''. Hachette UK, 2017. * Junod, Karen. ''Writing the Lives of Painters: Biography and Artistic Identity in Britain 1760-1810''. Oxford University Press, 2011. * Perry, Gillian. ''Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in British Art and Theatre, 1768-1820''. Yale University Press, 2007. 1760 paintings Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough Portraits of women Oil on canvas paintings 18th-century portraits Musical instruments in art {{1760s-painting-stub