Squire John Wilkinson

In this austere portrait of Squire John Wilkinson, late Gainsborough is seen at his best. Doubtless due to the sitter’s demand, this likeness is relatively restrained, even the setting is less glamorised than usual for the painter’s later phase (after 1774). Wilkinson, a manufacturer of cannon and founder of the British iron industry, was known as the ‘Great Staffordshire Ironmaster’; he was a self-proclaimed atheist and follower of Tom Paine.