I will get back to a few masters now. I am probably boring by my repetition but, it still amazes me that the artists from centuries back had to deal with oils and minerals and plant materials to make their paints. Yes, there were those that made and supplied painting materials but not in easy to use tubes or pans. The richer artists could afford apprentices and helpers but the work was still hard, dirty and downright dangerous. They were heros and workaholics and are to be forgiven their sometimes narcissistic tendencies. ................................................ . Thomas Gainsborough 1727 - 1788 
1787 Self Portrait Oil on canvas 
1739 Self portrait as a boy Gainsborough . with Reynolds (his main rival), the leading portrait painter in England in the later 18th century. The feathery brushwork of his mature work and rich sense of colour contribute to the enduring popularity of his portraits. Unlike Reynolds, he avoids references to Italian Renaissance art or the antique, and shows his sitters in fashionable contemporary dress.
He was a foundation member of the Royal Academy, though he later quarrelled with it over the hanging of his pictures. He became a favourite painter of George III and his family.
He was born at Sudbury, Suffolk, the son of a wool manufacturer. He trained in London, and set up in practice in Ipswich about 1752. In 1759 he moved to Bath, a fashionable spa, attracting many clients for his portraits. He settled in London in 1774. His private inclination was for landscape and rustic scenes, and his amusing letters record his impatience with his clients' demand for portraits. 
Lady And Gentleman In A Landscape This is Gainsborough with his new bride, Margaret Burr, in the year 1746. Created with fashionable romantic landscape. Probably symbolizing the Temple of Hymen.
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