# The Blue Boy > Thomas Gainsborough - c. 1770 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/thomas-gainsborough/gainsborough-the-blue-boy-huntington/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-10-08 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Thomas Gainsborough - **Date:** c. 1770 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Dimensions:** 70 5/8 x 48 3/4 x 1 in (179.4 x 123.8 x 2.5 cm); frame 85 x 63 x 6 in (215.9 x 160 x 15.2 cm) - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** English, eighteenth century - **Current location:** The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (Thornton Portrait Gallery) - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary Gainsborough's full-length boy in blue satin, shown, the Huntington says, at the Royal Academy in 1770 as A Portrait of a Young Gentleman, is in the Huntington at San Marino, California, under object number 21.1. It was painted on a canvas that already carried the start of a portrait of a man, with a dog that Gainsborough later painted out. No document names the sitter: Jonathan Buttall, the son of a Soho ironmonger, was the traditional answer from 1808, and the Huntington's own 2021 release treats that as disproven while a nephew, Gainsborough Dupont, is proposed but unconfirmed.The earliest printing of the story that Gainsborough painted it to defy Sir Joshua Reynolds that this record found is in 1820 or 1821, more than forty years after the Discourse of 10 December 1778 that supposedly provoked it. The picture came by way of Hoppner to the Earls Grosvenor, and in October 1921 the Duke of Westminster's pictures went through Christie's to Joseph Duveen, who cleaned it, showed it at the National Gallery for three weeks to about 90,000 visitors with Sir Charles Holmes's pencilled Au revoir CH on the stretcher, and sold it to Henry and Arabella Huntington. The price depends on the source: 620,000, 640,000 or 728,000 dollars.The Huntington treated it from 2017 and in public from September 2018, and lent it to the National Gallery for the first time in 2022. It is on view again in the Thornton Portrait Gallery. A second canvas of the same subject, the Hawley picture, was argued in 1898 to be the original; this record concerns the Huntington picture only. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1770-1770** Thomas Gainsborough `[documented]` (origin) Dated 1770 or c. 1770 by the Huntington and the National Gallery. Gainsborough lived in Bath from 1759 until 1774; the place of execution is not recorded in the sources consulted. Painted on a canvas that already carried an abandoned portrait of a man, with a dog later painted out. Not commissioned, according to the Huntington co-curator Melinda McCurdy. - **1770** Royal Academy exhibition, London `[documented]` (exhibition) The Huntington says it first appeared in public at the Royal Academy in 1770 as A Portrait of a Young Gentleman. Gower in 1903 wrote only that it was supposed to have been exhibited there. The Academy catalogue was not seen. - **before 1796 (date of acquisition unrecorded)-1796** Jonathan Buttall (1752-1805), Greek Street, Soho `[documented]` (ownership) Edwards (1808) says the picture was the portrait of Master Buttall, whose father was a considerable ironmonger in Greek Street; Young (1820 or 1821) says it was bought at Mr. Buttall's sale; the Huntington calls Buttall the first owner. Ownership by Buttall is attested by those statements; how and when Buttall obtained it, and whether he sat for it, is unrecorded, and no source dates his acquisition. Wikipedia, relying on Hedquist, says he filed for bankruptcy in 1796. The American Art News of 22 October 1921 says, without a source, that young Buttall had it until about 1796 and that it then passed to George, Prince of Wales. - **c. 1796-1802** Mr. Nesbit (Nesbitt); Wikipedia identifies him as the politician John Nesbitt `[disputed]` (purchase at Buttall's sale) Young: purchased at Mr. Buttall's sale by Mr. Nesbit. The Grosvenor House catalogue of 1876 says instead that at Mr. Buthall's death the picture was sold to Mr. Nesbit. Fuller prints a Nesbitt sale of 25 May 1802 in his own different account. No sale document seen; this link rests on catalogue statements, and the American Art News of 22 October 1921 adds, without a source, that the Prince of Wales owned it between Buttall and Nesbitt and that Nesbitt, a boon companion of the Prince, bought it for 300 pounds. - **1802-c. 1809** John Hoppner, painter `[disputed]` (purchase or custody) Edwards wrote in a book published in 1808 that it was then in Hoppner's possession; Young says Hoppner disposed of it to Earl Grosvenor. Hoppner's son wrote on 7 June 1872 that he remembered a Blue Boy in his father's house in Charles Street, St James's, and believed it was held in custody for the Prince of Wales. Fuller used the letter to argue that the picture Hoppner held was a different Blue Boy. - **before 1814 (probably about 1809)-1921** The Earls Grosvenor, Marquesses and Dukes of Westminster, Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London `[documented]` (purchase from Hoppner) Young, 1820 or 1821, No. 16; the Grosvenor House catalogues of 1876 and 1880, No. 77. Lent in 1814 to the British Institution as Portrait of a Youth and in 1857 to Manchester as The Blue Boy (Master Buttall), No. 156; Wikipedia adds the 1862, 1870, 1885 and 1896 loans. Ownership by Earl Grosvenor is attested by the 1814 British Institution entry and Young's catalogue; the date about 1809 is probable and comes from Wikipedia's summary of Hedquist, and no purchase price is recorded. Fuller notes the first Earl died in August 1802, so the buyer was probably the second Earl. The American Art News said in October 1921 that it had been sent to the National Gallery in war time for safe keeping. - **October 1921-November 1921** Duveen Brothers (Sir Joseph Duveen), London and New York `[documented]` (private sale through Christie's) Reported by the American Art News of 22 October 1921 (the only source for Christie's role) as sold by Christie's for the Duke of Westminster to Duveen, together with Reynolds's Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse, for about 170,000 pounds (about 640,000 dollars) for the Gainsborough and 200,000 pounds for both. A London paper of 20 October put the Blue Boy at 157,500 pounds (150,000 guineas). Behrman says the same deal included Gainsborough's Cottage Door. The sale was private; no auction occurred. The documented price is in dispute between the sources. - **October to November 1921-1922** Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) and Arabella Huntington (1851-1924), San Marino and New York `[documented]` (sale) The American Art News named Huntington as the buyer on 29 October 1921; the Los Angeles Times reported the purchase on 14 November. The price is given as 640,000 dollars (American Art News, 1921), 620,000 dollars (Behrman) and 728,000 or 728,800 dollars (the Huntington and The Art Newspaper), or roughly 725,000 (Hess, 2013). The Huntington says Henry and Arabella purchased it from Duveen, who had acquired it from the Duke. - **January 1922-25 January 1922** Exhibited by Duveen at the National Gallery, London, for three weeks `[documented]` (exhibition) Cleaned first at Duveen's order. 90,000 visitors; paid admissions about 1,000 pounds per the American Art News; Charles Holmes's pencil note Au revoir CH on a stretcher bar. - **6 February 1922-16 March 1922** Duveen Galleries, New York `[documented]` (exhibition and transit) Arrived in New York on the French liner La Savoie on 6 February 1922 in the charge of Mr Todd of Duveen's London galleries; shown from 23 February for the benefit of the Fifth Avenue Hospital, admission 2 dollars; extended to 15 March; sent to San Marino on 16 March. - **March 1922-present** Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, then The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California `[documented]` (collection) Arrived at San Marino, guarded and accompanied by Duveen, per the American Art News of 25 March 1922. The Huntington opened to the public in 1928 and the Blue Boy has been a visitor favourite since. Loaned once, to the National Gallery, London, from 25 January 2022. The date of any formal transfer from the founders to the institution was not found; the Huntington's catalogue states object number 21.1. ## Exhibitions - Royal Academy exhibition, A Portrait of a Young Gentleman (Huntington's identification), Royal Academy, London, 1770 - Shown as Portrait of a Youth, lent by Earl Grosvenor (Fuller's transcript), British Institution, London, 1814 - Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, Saloon D, No. 156, The Blue Boy (Master Buttall), Manchester, 1857 - International Exhibition; Royal Academy and South Kensington Museum (both 1870); Grosvenor Gallery; Royal Academy (from Wikipedia's summary of Hedquist; not independently checked), London, 1862, 1870 (twice), 1885, 1896 - Three-week public display ahead of departure, under Duveen, The National Gallery, London, January 1922 - For the benefit of the Fifth Avenue Hospital, 23 February to 15 March, Duveen Galleries, New York, February to March 1922 - Project Blue Boy, in-gallery conservation phases from 22 September 2018, The Huntington, San Marino, 2018-2020 - Gainsborough's Blue Boy, 25 January to 15 May (the Huntington's release says 3 May), The National Gallery, London, Room 46, 2022 ## Literature - Susan Sloman, 'Gainsborough's Blue boy', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 155 (April 2013), pp. 231-237 (pages from Wikipedia's citation); summary on the Burlington's contents page seen, article not seen. - Valerie Hedquist, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Thomas Gainsborough's Blue Boy (Routledge, 2019 or 2020; sources differ); cited by Wikipedia and the National Gallery, not seen. - Christine Riding, Susanna Avery-Quash, Melinda McCurdy, Jacqueline Riding and Imogen Tedbury (eds), Gainsborough's Blue Boy: The Return of a British Icon (National Gallery Company, 2022), as listed by the National Gallery; not seen. - Robyn Asleson and Shelley M. Bennett, British Paintings at the Huntington (2001); Shelley M. Bennett, The Art of Wealth: The Huntingtons in the Gilded Age (2013); Catherine Hess and Melinda McCurdy, Blue Boy & Co.: European Art at the Huntington (2015), as listed by the Huntington; not seen. - Deborah Cherry and Jennifer Harris, 'Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and the Seventeenth-Century Past: Gainsborough and Van Dyck', Art History, vol. 5, no. 3 (September 1982), pp. 287-309, as cited by Wikipedia; not seen. - Ellis Waterhouse, Gainsborough (1958; 1966 edition), as listed on the Internet Archive; not opened. - S. N. Behrman, Duveen (Random House, 1952; Hamish Hamilton, 1953), chapter 'The Blue Boy and Two Lavinias'; London edition read. - Meryle Secrest, Duveen: A Life in Art (2004); not seen. - William H. Fuller, Gainsborough's Blue Boy: A Monograph (New York, 1898); read. - John Young, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Grosvenor House (1820 or 1821); read. - Edward Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters (1808); read. - Ronald Sutherland Gower, Thomas Gainsborough (1903); read. - John Hayes, British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries (National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992), pp. 63-64, as cited by Wikipedia for Gainsborough Dupont; not seen. ## Open questions - Who is the boy? The Huntington's 2021 release says recent research has disproven the Jonathan Buttall identification and that the sitter remains unconfirmed; Susan Sloman's Burlington Magazine article of April 2013 identifies Gainsborough Dupont. What the 'recent research' is, and whether it rests on the same evidence as Sloman, was not established because neither could be read. - Who was the older man whose abandoned portrait lies under the boy, when was he begun, and was he a sitter or a study? The Huntington's pages describe only a face in a thick white neckcloth, begun on a canvas that was later reused. - Why did Gainsborough paint out the dog? The Huntington curator's 1995 guesses (too cute, or too much fluff beside the hat) are guesses. Whether the dog was covered with rocks or foliage is stated differently by the Los Angeles Times and the Huntington's infrared captions. - What exactly did the Huntington pay? 620,000, 640,000, roughly 725,000, 728,000 and 728,800 dollars all appear in sources. No Duveen invoice or Huntington ledger has been seen, and the 88,000 dollar gap between the 1921 trade paper and the Huntington's own figure is unexplained. - What happened to the Hawley or Fuller Blue Boy, and was it the picture Nesbitt owned? Fuller argued in 1898 that the Grosvenor picture was a different canvas from the one in Nesbitt's possession; the Huntington follows Young. The Fuller picture's present whereabouts are not recorded here. - When did Hoppner pass the picture to Earl Grosvenor, and for what? The catalogues give no date or price; the Wikipedia summary of Hedquist says about 1809. - Is this picture the Royal Academy's 1770 Portrait of a Young Gentleman? The Huntington says so; Gower in 1903 wrote only that it was supposed to have been exhibited there. The RA catalogue entry itself was not seen. - What pigments are in the blue? The Huntington used X-ray fluorescence in 2018-20 but its pages consulted do not publish results; ARTnews's mention of Prussian blue is unverified. - What did the Westminster estate receive and why did it sell? Newspapers in 1921 say taxation; Behrman says need for cash. The Westminster estate records, Christie's 1921 records and the Duveen Brothers papers at the Getty Research Institute have not been read for this record. ## Sources - [1] The Huntington, The Blue Boy (collection page): dates, the 2017 and 2018 conservation, the 2022 loan, the Wiley painting. - [2] The Huntington online catalogue (eMuseum), The Blue Boy, object number 21.1: medium, dimensions in inches and centimetres, frame dimensions, status On view, IIIF and PDF links; consulted 2026-10-08. - [3] The Huntington, Project Blue Boy: History (text by Melinda McCurdy): Van Dyck, the blue costume, the sitter, 1921 purchase, Duveen's exhibitions, further reading. - [4] The Huntington, Project Blue Boy: Conservation (text and photographs by Christina O'Connell): visible light, cross-section, ultraviolet, infrared reflectography and X-radiography findings; the 'Au revoir, CH' inscription. - [5] The Huntington, Project Blue Boy (exhibition page, 22 Sept 2018 to 30 Sept 2019): treatment schedule, equipment, funders, McCurdy and O'Connell quotations. - [6] Usha Lee McFarling, 'Examining The Blue Boy', Huntington Frontiers, 1 April 2018: interview with Christina O'Connell and John House; condition, microscope, plan of treatment. - [7] The Huntington, news release 'Huntington to Lend Its Iconic Blue Boy to the National Gallery, London', 29 June 2021: dates, quotations from Karen R. Lawrence and Gabriele Finaldi, the 1922 New York Times 'Au revoir' passage, Buttall 'disproven', Murnau film, Rauschenberg. - [8] Catherine Hess, 'How Do You Frame a Masterpiece?', Huntington Verso, 24 October 2013: 1938 frame memo, Duveen frame, 2013 reframing. - [9] The Huntington, Kehinde Wiley, 'A Portrait of a Young Gentleman' (exhibition page): dimensions, 2 Oct 2021 debut, Wiley quotation. - [10] Suzanne Muchnic, 'Exorcising the Ghosts of Art', Los Angeles Times, 25 June 1995: the 1994-95 Getty-funded survey, the dog, the 1939 X-ray of the older man, Shelley Bennett quotations. - [11] The National Gallery, London, 'Gainsborough's Blue Boy' (past exhibition, 25 January to 15 May 2022, Room 46). - [12] Dan Vo, 'Gainsborough's Blue Boy', National Gallery Picture of the month, February 2022: Van Dyck pairings, reception readings, catalogue citation. - [13] BBC News, 'Thomas Gainsborough's Blue Boy to return to the UK after 100 years', 29 June 2021: Finaldi and Lawrence quotations, 25 January to 15 May 2022, McCurdy quotation, 'Au revoir'. - [14] Tessa Solomon, 'Why Thomas Gainsborough's Iconic Blue Boy Was Once the Most Famous Painting in the World', ARTnews, 4 February 2022 (press feature, secondary). - [15] Gareth Harris, 'Gainsborough showstopper The Blue Boy comes home to the UK after 100 years', The Art Newspaper, 30 June 2021. - [16] Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, 'Saving One of Western Art's Most Iconic Paintings', The Atlantic, 22 September 2017 (only the opening text was readable; the rest is behind a subscription). - [17] The Burlington Magazine, April 2013 (vol. 155, no. 1321), contents page with the summary of Susan Sloman, 'Gainsborough's Blue boy'; the article itself is behind a subscription and was not read. - [18] The Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds, ed. John Burnet (London: J. Carpenter, 1842): the Eighth Discourse (10 December 1778), Burnet's note quoting a letter of Sir Thomas Lawrence on the Blue Boy, the Fourteenth Discourse on Gainsborough. Internet Archive scan, read in full text. - [19] John Young, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Grosvenor House, London, with etchings (London: J. Dowding, 1821 per this record; another Internet Archive copy is dated 1820), No. 16, 'Portrait of Master Buttall, better known under the name of the Blue Boy'. - [20] Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Grosvenor House (London: S. Goldbourn, 1876), No. 77; the 1880 edition (archive.org id catalogueofcolle00west) carries the same entry. - [21] William H. Fuller, Gainsborough's Blue Boy: A Monograph (New York, 1898): a partisan argument for the Hawley picture; transcripts of the 1814 and 1857 catalogues, the Hoppner letter of 1872, Notes and Queries extracts, Reynolds's Eighth Discourse. - [22] Ronald Sutherland Gower, Thomas Gainsborough (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1903), pp. 77-79 and deathbed passage; read in the Internet Archive full text. - [23] Edward Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters who have resided or been born in England (London, 1808), the Gainsborough chapter and footnote naming Master Buttall. - [24] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 1, 15 October 1921: 'British Fear Blue Boy Will Be Sold'. - [25] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 2, 22 October 1921: ''Blue Boy's' Price Is World's Record' (Christie's, Duveen, 170,000 pounds, taxation). - [26] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 3, 29 October 1921: ''Blue Boy' Goes to H. E. Huntington'; editorial 'Three Great Paintings'. - [27] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 5, 12 November 1921: ''Blue Boy' to Lose 'Green Boy' Look'; 'Those Two Blue Boys'. - [28] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 9, 10 December 1921: note of Sydney E. Wilson's mezzotint of the Blue Boy. - [29] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 11, 24 December 1921: advertisement for the Wilson colour mezzotint, edition of 425. - [30] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 13, 7 January 1922: 'London Has Last Look at Blue Boy'. - [31] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 16, 28 January 1922: 'Guard Blue Boy's Journey to America'. - [32] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 18, 11 February 1922: 'Blue Boy Will Be Shown Next Week' (arrival on La Savoie, 6 February). - [33] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 19, 18 February 1922: admission for the Duveen Galleries showing. - [34] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 20, 25 February 1922: ''Blue Boy' Seen in Its Original Glory'; editorial 'The Blue Boy'. - [35] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 22, 11 March 1922: 'Blue Boy' exhibition extended to 15 March. - [36] American Art News, vol. 20, no. 24, 25 March 1922: ''Blue Boy' Arrives at Huntington Home'. - [37] 'Sale of Old Masters. Record Prices', King Country Chronicle (New Zealand), 15 December 1921, reprinting a London paper of 20 October 1921. Papers Past, read through the browser. - [38] 'The Blue Boy', Hawera and Normanby Star (New Zealand), 15 March 1922, London letter dated 10 January 1922. Papers Past. - [39] Untitled paragraph, The Dominion (New Zealand), 19 January 1922: Huntington as owner; garbled price. Papers Past. - [40] 'Art Treasures', Southland Times (New Zealand), 15 August 1922: Sir Robert Witt at the National Art-Collection Fund; earlier record prices; its own Blue Boy price line is illegible in the OCR. Papers Past. - [41] S. N. Behrman, Duveen (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953; first published 1952), chapter 'The Blue Boy and Two Lavinias': the Aquitania anecdote, the 1921 purchase, Huntington's remark. Internet Archive scan, read in full text; a biographer's retelling of Duveen's own account. - [42] UCLA Library Special Collections, Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives, 'Famed Blue Boy painting by Thomas Gainsborough, Los Angeles, 1921' (Calisphere), with caption text on taxation and the headline of the Los Angeles Times article of 14 November (printed there with the year 1931, evidently a slip). - [43] Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 'Consumer Price Index, 1913-': annual average CPI(-U) 17.9 (1921), 321.9 (2025), 334.4 (2026 estimate); consulted 2026-10-08. - [44] University of Missouri Libraries, Prices and Wages by Decade: 1920-1929, citing U.S. BLS Bulletin 852, pp. 22-23 (average annual salary-wage of full-time workers, 1921: 1,378 dollars). - [45] Royal Collection Trust, Anthony van Dyck, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Lord Francis Villiers, inscribed 1635, RCIN 404401. - [46] Tate, Thomas Gainsborough, 'Gainsborough Dupont', c.1770-5 (on long loan to Gainsborough's House, Sudbury). - [47] Tate, Thomas Gainsborough, 'Edward Richard Gardiner', c.1760-8, T00727. - [48] The National Gallery, London, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), artist page: biography and bibliography (Belsey in the Oxford DNB; Rosenthal in Grove Art). - [49] Wikipedia, 'The Blue Boy' (wikitext read); a TERTIARY source, used for Hedquist's dates and exhibition list and flagged for replacement with Hedquist, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Thomas Gainsborough's Blue Boy (Routledge, 2019 or 2020) and Sloman (2013). - [50] Wikipedia, 'Gainsborough Dupont' (wikitext read); a TERTIARY source citing Hayes (1992) and the National Gallery of Art; flagged for replacement. - [51] Wikimedia Commons, File:Thomas Gainsborough - The Blue Boy (c. 1770).jpg: Artwork template naming the Huntington (accession 21.1, 179.4 x 123.8 cm) and its eMuseum page as source; uploaded 24 February 2023; licence PD-Art (PD-old-auto-expired, creator died 1788). - [52] Wikimedia Commons, File:Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) (after) - The Blue Boy - PC.117 - Pollok House.jpg: credited to Art UK as an oil copy after Gainsborough, probably after 1770. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. 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