2-738-415 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of George Pitt, First Lord Rivers, c. 1768-1769. Although George Pitt reputedly led a life of debauchery while living in Turin, Italy, in the 1760s, Gainsborough successfully conveys a refined sense of dignity and importance in this full-length portrait. Pitt wears the uniform of the Dorset militia, where he served as a colonel, and the painter offsets the deep scarlet and green facing of Pitt’s military uniform with the cool, woodland landscape painted in thin washes of mauves, grays, and silvers.