I coniugi William Hallett («La passeggiata mattutina»)

In the summer of 1785, William Hallett and Elizabeth Stephen married. They were both about 21, from comfortable families, and Gainsborough painted them that same year, walking together as if out for an ordinary stroll. There is no grand setting, no coat of arms, no attempt to make them look older or more important than they were. The couple move through a loose screen of feathery trees that Gainsborough brushed in so thinly the ground shows through, and Elizabeth's pale silk dress and wide hat almost dissolve into the same soft light. Their dog looks up at them. Gainsborough was near the end of his life when he made this, and he kept the whole thing deliberately open and quick, the paint left looking unfinished.