“It’s an insult.” Fumed the President of the Royal Academy, looking at the crowd gathered around the painting of a boy in a blue suit.
“Whatever do you mean?” said his companion. “It follows historical ideas, those of Van Dyke.”
“In my last lecture I said that you shouldn’t use grey, green or blue as the main colour in the centre of a painting, and Thomas Gainsborough produces this.”
“But look at the crowd, everyone thinks it’s a masterpiece.”
“Yes, it certainly is, and that just makes it worse.” Sir Joshua Reynolds snorted, and walked out of the gallery.
A wonderful legend, recorded by someone who knew Gainsborough, but probably not true.
Sir Joshua Reynolds certainly wrote that blue, green and grey should not form the central mass of a painting, however Thomas Gainsborough’s painting ‘The Blue Boy’ was painted several years before Reynolds lecture.
However it is a great story, and a magnificent painting.
This week’s prompt from Charli at the Carrot Ranch is
March 27 2023, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about something impossibly blue. You can go with sky or any other object. What impact does the colour have on the setting or characters? Does it lead to action or create a pause? Go where the prompt leads!
The Curious Archaeologist 