Portrait of the Artist with his Wife and Daughter

Gainsborough was not yet 21 when he painted this, probably in 1748. It is the earliest self-portrait in oil we know by him, and the only one with his family. He sits cross-legged under a tree beside his wife, Margaret Burr, who was a year or so younger. A small dog drinks from a pool at his feet. The little rosy-cheeked girl between them is probably Mary, their first daughter, who lived only a short time. She was buried on 1 March 1748, and the National Gallery thinks he likely began the picture before then. Some passages were never resolved. Margaret's left hand is incomplete, and X-rays show her pose and dress were altered. At first she wore a floppy hat. The paper in the painter's hand, perhaps a drawing, was thinly painted, and age has made it and the child more transparent than he intended.