Face to face, the current exhibition at Gainsborough's House

 This summer Gainsborough's House is the venue for an exhibition of outstanding portraits from the collection of art critic and writer Andrew Lambirth.

Reflecting Lambirth's interest in the Modern British period, paintings on show include works by Maggie Hambling. Walter Sickert, John Nash and Augustus John.  Many are self portraits, and all are fascinating in their own way.  There are examples of a wide range of different media, from oil paintings to prints and etchings.  I was particularly taken by a self portrait by the Ukrainian born artist Jacob Kramer, who spent most of his working life in Leeds.  His father, also an artist, was a pupil of the great Russian portaitist, Ilya Repin.

Another fascinating work, and one of particular relevance to The House,  is Martha Parsey's Gainsborough Girls ll, which although a self portrait takes the form of Gainsborough's  The Painter's Daughters chasing a Butterfly, which hangs in the National Gallery.

A visitor admires Martha Parsey's relfection on Gainsborough

Lambirth bought his first painting when he was studying art history at Nottingham University in the late 1970's.  He was the art critic of the Spectator from 2002 until 2014. and copies of his book A is a Critic, a collection of many of his best articles from that time, are on sale in the Gainsborough House Shop.  Also available are two limited edition prints, one by Maggie Hambling and another by Martha Parsey, which were specially produced to mark the exhibition.

Also on show in the gallery, and more or less visible in the photograph above, is Nicole Farhi's bust of Gainsborough, which she discussed recently when appearing on BBC's Desert Island Discs.

Face to Face, portraits from the Andrew Lambirth Collection, runs at Gainsborough's House until 16th October 2016.