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Charles Rousseau Burney, late 1770s
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788)
Oil on canvas; 20 1/4 x 25 1/8 in. (76.8 x 63.8 cm)
Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, 1950 (50.145.16)

 
Elijah Boardman, 1789
Ralph Earl (1751
1801)
Oil on canvas; 83 x 51 in. (210.8 x 129.5 cm)
Bequest of Susan W. Tyler, 1979 (1979.395)


The half-length portrait of Charles Rousseau Burney, a noted eighteenth-century harpsichordist, was painted by British artist Thomas Gainsborough. He wears the lightly powdered hair and costume of about 1770 and displays a score, attribute of the musician and composer. The breezy fluency of handling is especially appropriate to Gainesborough's characterization of this evidently gentle and agreeable man.

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