Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Mary, Countess Howe, 1763–64. Oil on canvas, 94 15/16 × 60 3/4 in. English Heritage, Kenwood House, London; © Historic England / Bridgeman Images

NEW YORK - Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture explores the relationship between works by period-defining English artist Thomas Gainsborough and fashion, a concept and industry that touched nearly every aspect of British society in the eighteenth century. The artist’s painted images were subject to the same forces of fashion as the people they depict. Like the cut and cloth of a jacket, the shape, size, and facture of a painted portrait could be avant-garde or passé. In Gainsborough’s world, the trappings, trade, and power of fashion were everywhere—from magazines to tailor shops, from the opera to promenades—and his portraits were at the heart of it all.

The museum’s first special exhibition dedicated to the artist—and the first devoted to Gainsborough’s portraiture ever held in New York—this show brings together over two dozen of Gainsborough’s most spectacular portraits from across North America and the United Kingdom, representing each stage of his four-decade career.

Technical investigations conducted in collaboration with conservators at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Yale Center for British Art will also shed light on Gainsborough’s artistic process and materials, exploring connections between his practice and goods that fueled the fashion industry—from dyes, pigments, and cosmetics to textiles and jewelry.

This exhibition is organized by Aimee Ng, the Frick’s Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, and is complemented by a richly illustrated catalogue and robust calendar of programs.

Leadership support for this exhibition is provided by an anonymous donor in honor of Ian Wardropper and by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and The Christian Humann Foundation.

Major support is provided by Michael and Jane Horvitz, Dr. Tai-Heng Cheng, Barbara and Bradford Evans, Kathleen Feldstein, Mrs. Natalie Jackson and The Brandt Jackson Foundation, James K. Kloppenburg, Dr. Arlene P. McKay, The Eric & Jane Nord Family Fund for Exhibition Programming, The Helen Clay Frick Foundation, David and Kate Bradford, the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation, Anita Saggurti, and Katie von Strasser – InspiratumColligere.

Additional support is provided by Margot and Jerry Bogert, Edward Lee Cave, Mr. and Mrs. Hubert L. Goldschmidt, The Honorable and Mrs. Earle Mack, Jennifer Schnabl, Connie Simmons and James D. Krugman, the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, Bradley Isham Collins† and Amy Fine Collins, Bosilika An, Denise Mularoni Decker, Siri and Bob Marshall, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Henry J. Campos, Bailey Foote, Alexander Mason Hankin, Brittany Beyer Harwin and Zachary Harwin, Kevin MacKinnon, Laurence Ross Milstein, The Rothman and Rycroft Family, and Otto Naumann and Heidi D. Shafranek.

This exhibition is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Until May 25, 2026

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Peter Darnell Muilman, Charles Crokatt, and William Keable, ca. 1750. Oil on canvas. 30 1/8 × 25 1/4 in. (76.5 × 64.2 cm) Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk, and Tate, London.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), The Hon. Frances Duncombe, ca. 1776. Oil on canvas. 92 1/4 × 61 1/8 in. (234.3 × 155.3 cm) The Frick Collection, New York. Photograph-Joseph Coscia Jr.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Mary, Duchess of Montagu, ca. 1768. Oil on canvas. 49 1/4 × 39 1/2 in. (125.1 × 100.3 cm) Duke of Buccleuch, Bowhill House, Scottish Borders. Photo: Courtesy The Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Ignatius Sancho, 1768. Oil on canvas. 29×241/2in.(73.7×62.2cm) National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Grace Dalrymple Elliott, 1782. Oil on canvas 301/8×25in.(76.5×63.5cm) The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: Michael Bodycomb

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Grace Dalrymple Elliott, 1778. Oil on canvas 92 1/4 × 60 1/2 in. (234.3 × 153.7 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photo: Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art / ArtResource