Gainsborough Sign

Here's a turn up for the book. This sign for Holton St Mary School in Suffolk, painted in 1748, is now thought to be an early work by Thomas Gainsborough, who was born and grew up in Suffolk. He would have been 21 years old when he painted this sign. Dr Lindsay Stainton, a former curator of the British Museum, recognized the painting as a Gainsborough by the boy's similarity to a signed Gainsborough sketch owned by a New York library. Well spotted! Unfortunately, ham-fisted restoration work during the last 50 years has greatly reduced its worth - artistically and financially - as a Gainsborough.