Jonathan Buttall: The Blue Boy, 1770Maker: Thomas GainsboroughBritish, 1727-1788Sitter: Jonathan Buttall, British1752 - 1805Long enshrined as an icon of British art, this painting of Jonathan Buttall, the teenage son of a London ironmonger, made its first public appearance as Portrait of a Young Gentleman in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1770. By 1798 admiring British artists had nicknamed it "The Blue Boy".Symphony no. 91 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was one of the most prominent composers of the classical period, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".
