Thomas Gainsborough

"I am favoured with your obliging letter, and shall finish your picture in two or three days at farthest, and send to Colchester according to your order, with a frame. I thank you. Sir, for your kind i…"

"Do you consider, my dear maggotty sir , what a deal of work history pictures require to what little dirty subjects of coal horses and jackasses and such figures as I fill up with; no, you don't consid…"

"Dear Jackson, - ..First and most unfortunately, I have been four times after Bach, and have never laid eyes on him.. ..but surely I shall catch Bach soon to get you an answer to your letter.."

"And here I give it under my hand that I will most willingly begin upon a new canvas . But I only for the present beg your Lordship will give me leave to try an experiment upon that picture to prove th…"

"to Joshua Kirby, Esq. - to be left at the Turk's Head, Gerrard Street, St. Ann's, London - Mr. President and Gentlemen, Directors of the Society of Artists of Great Britain. I thank ye for the honor d…"

"Dear Sir Joshua, - I am just to write what I fear you will not read - after lying in a dying state for 6 months . The extreme affection which I am informed of by a Friend which Sir Joshua has expresd …"

"You please me much by saying that no other fault is to be found in your picture than the roughness of the surface; for that part being of use in giving force to the effect at a proper distance.. ..I u…"

"Pray do you remember carrying me to a picture-dealer's somewhere by Hanover Square, , and my being struck with the leaving and touch of a little bit of tree; the whole picture was not above 8 or 10 in…"