John Kirby

Thomas Gainsborough executed this portrait of John Kirby around 1752-1753. The oil on canvas measures 76.2 by 63.7 centimeters and shows Gainsborough's early portrait style before he moved to Bath and became one of England's most sought-after painters. The work captures his friendship with the Kirby family.

The subject appears to be John Joshua Kirby, a topographical draughtsman who made the rules of perspective accessible to ordinary artists. Kirby distilled the complex mathematics from Brook Taylor's 1715 treatise into practical instructions that painters could actually use. His book earned him the position of teaching perspective to the future King George III, who later appointed him Clerk of the Works at Kew.

Gainsborough and Kirby remained close friends throughout their lives. When Gainsborough died in 1788, he expressed his wish to be buried near Joshua Kirby at St Anne's Church in Kew. The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University holds this portrait, a gift from Charles Fairfax Murray in 1908.