[MUSIC] Today we'll look at a number of works by Gainsborough, both here in Melbourne and in San Marino that share related themes around the culture of sensibility. And we will learn how his genius was embedded in those values. We will look at how the ideals of masculinity and femininity are played out in his paintings. And we will also consider a particularly prominent feature of Gainsborough's art, his interest in incorporating domestic animals into his compositions. George Stubbs, it might be argued, was a more accurate, and perhaps a more gifted painter of animals. But Gainsborough's portraits of the British establishment are indeed noteworthy for the role played in his compositions of the emotional relationship between human and animal sitters. I want to suggest that in Gainsborough's art, we see the emergence of a change in the relationship between human beings and animals. And that his pictures challenge the principles of Cartesian philosophy, in which it was thought that animals were like machines and felt no pain. Gainsborough was the most noteworthy painter of the emotional life of animals, especially of dogs and horses. And this reflects both the widespread changes taking place in the late 18th century as well as Gainsborough's unique perspective on the attitudes of his day. For example, let's think about the relationship in our painting here at the National Gallery of Victoria between the soldier and his dog. And how Gainsborough used animals to represent men as emotional subjects in a subtle and a socially accepted way. We will examine the emergence of what has been called the ‘man of feeling’ in literature and art during this period. And examine in particular this concept and how it is represented in the work in front of us. How are the competing and conflicting identities of the sitter of Richard St George, as a military man, and a person of sensibility combined in this remarkable composition? Gainsborough has been described as a sensualist. His personality was immersed in the senses and in the emotions. His pictures are lush, they're vibrant, they're above all naturalistic. Gainsborough's heart was in nature and he famously exclaimed I'm sick of portraits, and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba, and walk off to some sweet village where I can paint landskips, and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease. And he painted wonderful landscapes such as his seascape here in Melbourne, which we'll come back to later. But what he's best known for is the portraits of upper class men and women living in both urban and rural locations. He's especially famous for his portraits of the British landed gentry. And his Officer of the 4th Regiment of Foot is a brilliant example of such a work. An Officer of the 4th Regiment of Foot, painted between 1776 and 1780, is a portrait of the Anglo Irish landowner Richard St George Mansergh St George. And, in my view, one of Gainsborough's finest and most interesting pictures. Gainsborough's portrait of the Anglo Irish landowner when he was soldier emits a special reaction from viewers on account of the melancholy expression and pose of the young Mansergh and the subtle rendering of the devotion of his dog, set as it is in an atmospheric coastal landscape. Indeed the canine and the Irishman vie for the viewer's gaze which moves from dog to the man and back again. This painting is unusual from a number of points of view. Firstly, St George, who is dressed in his regimental uniform, has a distinctly unmilitary like cast. Rather than appearing to be an enthusiastic soldier who is eagerly awaiting his commission, Mansergh appears depressed and even melancholic. He slouches against a rock that protrudes from the coastline and upon which he is standing. His hat in his hand, he stares into space, apparently in the middle of a reverie. Secondly, this hound has a very prominent position in the composition. His dog who stands to his right gazes up to him, waiting patiently, it seems, to give assistance and succour to his diffident master. So why would Gainsborough have painted this soldier of the 4th Regiment of Foot forlornly located on a foggy coast, in military regalia, with no one in sight but his faithful hound? Such an enigmatic image is unusual in Gainsborough's oeuvre. The key to understanding it resides in part in the circumstances in which the sitter commissioned Gainsborough to paint the wealthy, young landowner. St George, it turns out, was about to set out for America to fight in the American War of Independence. It might well have been the case that Mansergh, and indeed Gainsborough himself, intended the picture as a commemorative portrait in case he did not return from the war. By all accounts, St George was a man of literary tastes who had developed an unusual interest in gothic chivalric literature, which he'd read at Cambridge. He was interested in all things gothic, immersing himself in the romance of the Knights of the Templar, seeking to live the legend himself. Some say by actually taking up a military commission as an officer in the 4th Regiment of Foot. One observer described him as quite military mad. St George went to America shortly after the portrait was completed. And tragically, he was wounded at the battle of Germantown in October 1777, about 18 months after the portrait was commissioned. He was shot in the head, sustaining a disfiguring injury, which sent him home, and was visible for the rest of his life. The clear sense that is conveyed in the portrait, set as it is on the coast, with the ship that would take St George to war is of a young man contemplating an uncertain future. Here a soldier confronts the prospect of fighting a battle in a foreign land. An important device through which this is conveyed is the role played by the hound, who looks devotedly to his master, and seems to wonder what the future will be. The dog looks to his master with devotion and empathy, which is indeed unusual in any painting of the period. Gainsborough has created a strong sense of empathy between the dog and St George, companions together. The picture is almost a prefiguration of what was to come, St George's horrible fate. A debilitating wound to the head, and also some 12 years later, his murder by Irish rebels on his estate in Cork in 1798. When I first saw this painting hanging here in this wonderful room at the National Gallery of Victoria, I was struck by the beauty of the picture, its fine brush work, composition, and palette. But especially by the close relationship of the figure of the soldier and his dog, each sadly contemplating their situation. The dog, his distant and melancholy master, the soldier and the fate that awaited him. This like so many of Gainsborough's portraits of people with their animals represents in a manner that few other artists have succeeded in presenting, the emotional relationship between dogs and human beings. [MUSIC]
