The Blue Boy

The Blue Boy is a celebrated full-length oil on canvas portrait. It was created by the English artist Thomas Gainsborough around 1770. This masterpiece is currently held by The Huntington in San Marino, California. While the painting is world-famous, the identity of the boy remains a mystery. For a long time, people believed the subject was Jonathan Buttall. He was the son of a wealthy hardware merchant. However, this connection has never been proven. Some historians, like Susan Sloman, suggest the sitter was actually Gainsborough's nephew, Gainsborough Dupont.

The painting serves two purposes: it is a portrait and a historical costume study. Gainsborough dressed the youth in 17th-century clothing. He did this as an homage to the artist Anthony van Dyck. The style is very similar to van Dyck's portraits of young boys. One specific comparison is to the double portrait of George Villiers and Lord Francis Villiers.

To create the work, Gainsborough used oil paints on a large canvas. Interestingly, he had already drawn something else on the canvas before he began. He simply painted over his original drawing to start the portrait. The finished work is about life-size in its dimensions.

A famous story surrounds the creation of the painting and its colors. Printmaker John Young published a reproduction in 1821. He claimed Gainsborough painted it to defy Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds was the president of the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1778, Reynolds gave a lecture called the Eighth Discourse. In this speech, he discussed the use of warm and cool colors. This story set the two artists in opposition. Reynolds was a disciplined advocate for history painting. Gainsborough was a portrait painter and a landscapist who stayed away from academic duties. Even though the painting was finished eight years before the lecture, the story helped make the painting famous.

The painting has traveled through many important collections. After Jonathan Buttall filed for bankruptcy in 1796, the painting changed hands. It was owned by a politician named John Nesbitt. In 1802, the portrait painter John Hoppner purchased it. By 1809, it entered the collection of the Earl Grosvenor. The painting stayed with the Grosvenor family for many generations. The second Duke of Westminster eventually sold it to Henry Edward Huntington in 1921. Before leaving the United Kingdom in 1922, the painting was displayed at the National Gallery. During that time, 90,000 people went to see it.

The fame of The Blue Boy has reached many different parts of culture. It has appeared in variety shows, such as the Mayfair and Montmartre show. In one performance, singer Nellie Taylor sang "The Blue Boy Blues" while dressed as the subject. The painting has also been used in advertisements and ceramic figures. People have even worn similar costumes to fancy-dress balls and weddings. In the 20th century, famous figures like Marlene Dietrich and Shirley Temple appeared in Blue Boy costumes. This led to a gradual feminization of the image in the public eye.

In more recent decades, the painting has become a symbol for different groups. In 1974, Don N. Embinder published Blueboy Magazine. This was an upscale magazine for the gay community. Embinder used the image to represent the liberated gay man. He transformed a former derogatory stereotype into an emblem of pride. Many gay artists have embraced the boy as a symbol of emancipation. This includes artists such as Robert Lambert, Howard Kottler, and Léopold Foulem. The image moved from being a subject of jokes to a sign of identity.

Today, the boy in blue appears in many modern media forms. You can see him in movies like Batman and Die Another Day. He has even appeared in the video game Animal Crossing. The painting has influenced many other creators. Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg was inspired to become a painter by this work. The painting is often displayed near a work called Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence. It even inspired the name of a coffee blend called "Blue Boy." Whether in a museum or on a screen, the painting remains a powerful part of our shared history.