NPG Acquires Gainsborough Portrait
December 21 2020
Picture: NPG
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Portrait Gallery in London has announced it has acquired a portrait of Gaetan Apolline Balthazar Vestris by Thomas Gainsborough. Vestris was a famous dancer who came to perform at the King's Theatre in London during 1780-1. Indeed, I've dug this quote by Horace Walpole describing the applause after one of his performances:
the men thundered, the ladies forgetting their delicacy and weakness, clapped with such vehemence, that seventeen broke their arms, sixty-nine sprained their wrists, and three cried bravo! bravissimo! so rashly, that they have not been able to utter so much as no since, any more than both Houses of Parliament.
The picture was acquired through the acceptance in lieu scheme from the collection of the late George Pinto.
Coincidentally, here's an article by the scholar Martin Postle on another portrait of Vestris identified in the Tate's collection back in 2004 (where I lifted the above quote from, I should add).
