Mary Gainsborough, later Mrs. Fischer (1749-1826) [the...
Mary Gainsborough, later Mrs. Fischer (1749-1826) [the artist's daughter]
Oil on canvas. This portrait depicts Mary, the daughter of Thomas Gainsborough. She was briefly married to oboist and composer Johan Christian Fischer, but suffered mental illness following the breakdown of her marriage. On the reverse of the canvas is a portrait of Gainsborough Dupont, nephew of the celebrated painter. As a teenager, Dupont was apprenticed to his uncle and he later became Gainsborough’s studio assistant.
Once thought to have been painted by Gainsborough himself, the images on each side of the canvas are in fact early copies after Gainsborough. The portrait of Mary relates to a painting of 1777, now in the Tate Collection and formerly in the collection of Sir Otto Beit, which shows the sitter in a different dress. The Dupont portrait on the reverse of the painting has been partially removed by sanding, but can still be identified as a copy of a work now in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, USA, and once in the collection of Dupont’s sister. It remains a mystery as to how and why the unknown artist of this work painted two images on the same canvas, both inspired by Gainsborough paintings from different private collections; discarding the Dupont portrait in favour of the portrait of Mary.
