Portrait of Ann Ford (later Mrs.Philip Thicknesse)

Ann Ford was a scandal in polite Georgian England, and Gainsborough painted her in 1760 at the height of it. A gentlewoman was not supposed to perform music in public for money, and when she gave concerts anyway, London split into pamphlets attacking and defending her. Gainsborough answers the gossip with sheer confidence. He seats her with her legs boldly crossed, a viola da gamba propped behind her and her fingers resting near a guitar, entirely at ease. A fellow painter who saw the picture thought the pose far too forward for a lady. Two years later she married Gainsborough's close friend, the writer Philip Thicknesse, who became one of the painter's earliest champions.