Accessible Britain

076 Gainsborough House Museum, Suffolk
Address: 46 Gainsborough Street, Sudbury CO10 2EU Web: www.gainsborough.org Tel: 01787 372958
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am–5pm Dates: closed Good Friday & 23 Dec–2 Jan Entry:
[D]£6.50 [C]free [A]£6.50 [child and student]£2 [Fam]£15
THE EAST MIDLANDS AND EAST ANGLIA
Thomas Gainsborough was (along with Joshua Reynolds, his chief rival) eighteenthcentury
England’s leading portrait painter, and there’s no more fitting place to admire
his work than here in the artist’s birthplace – a handsome sixteenth-century house that’s
home to a superb collection of Gainsborough’s paintings, drawings and prints.
The permanent collection contains numerous portraits and landscapes, many
featuring the delicate, feathery brushwork and rich colours that typified Gainsborough’s
later works. Highlights to look out for include the recently acquired Wooded Landscape
with Old Peasant and Donkeys outside a Barn, and the charming portrait of the Pitminster
Boy. Also represented here are works by other artists associated with Gainsborough,
such as his nephew and studio assistant Gainsborough Dupont, some of whose paintings
have been mistakenly sold as Gainsboroughs. The house – whose oldest parts date from
around 1500 – provides a beautiful setting for the artworks and the various items of
eighteenth-century furniture and Gainsborough memorabilia on display. Outside you’ll
find an enchanting walled garden whose centrepiece is a 400-year-old mulberry tree.
There are three disabled bays on Gainsborough Street, right outside the museum; if
these are full, the car park behind North Street is about a five-minute walk away. Entry
to the museum is through step-free double doors which wheelchair users will need
help to open. Inside, the house is surprisingly accessible for such an old building, and
is mostly manageable in a wheelchair (with some assistance). One area on the ground
Gainsborough House Museum
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