Conversation in a Park

This oil painting, an early work by Thomas Gainsborough, displays the impact of French art. He painted it at the beginning of his painting career towards 1746. The scene of Conventional in a Park falls into the conventional piece's category, a genre characteristic of English art in the 18th century.

The iconography of this portrait is relatively simple. A young man is sitting on a bench holding a book next to a beautiful lady. He is an aristocrat, deduced from his sword, and is courting his partner. The setting is usually for a Thomas portrait, with a wooden background and a bench. Thomas often painted couples. But these young individuals seem somewhat like puppets, stiffer than actual persons. The whole painting overall brings together a conventional aspect of the seduction scene in a picture. The young man seems agitated with his right hand stretched out towards the young lady and his legs crossed.

On the other hand, the young lady in her pasted-pink gown seems visibly scarcely to respond to her companion. She appears composed with her face turned in the direction of the painter. This paint is now at the Louvre Museum. The talent of Thomas Gainsborough for landscape painting is here in this romantic portrait with wooden background, which frames the scene. The technique of Gainsborough consisted of applying colours in one layer. Also, he mixed his pictures with more oil, thus enhancing the luminosity of the canvas. Conversation in a Park painting is indicative of the French art influence on English aesthetics back in the 18th century. Great works by Nicolas Lancret, Philip Mercier, and Watteau quickly become popular in England – the paintings were produced in engravings.

The 1720s is when a typical conversation piece started life. The genre made improvements to the French Rococo convections for portraiture. However, it was mainly a reply to the renewal of cultural life and English artistic. It quickly became well-known. The genre also accepts an informal portrait to be made of a crowd of individuals, with figures typically presented to the portrait viewer in a spontaneous manner and not in traditional poses.