The Blue Boy

The Blue Boy (1770) by Thomas Gainsborough. Its palette is led by dark golden umber (#4d3e28, 44%) and bistre (#221c14, 32%), with accents of muted teal and light muted aqua. Overall the canvas is dark, moderately saturated and warm.

Color reading

Brown and black cover nearly nine-tenths of the canvas. Its most vivid color, golden umber #7F6C40, takes up 7% of it.

Palette

#4d3e28 MG 185 dark golden umber 43.7% of canvas
#221c14 MG 219 bistre 32.1% of canvas
#1d3234 MG 211 dark slate 10.0% of canvas
#7f6c40 MG 183 golden umber 7.4% of canvas
#496d6d MG 083 muted teal 3.9% of canvas
#8cafaf MG 080 light muted aqua 3.0% of canvas

Color families

Brown 60%, Black 27%, Blue 7%, Gray 3%, Green 2%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.35
Contrast: 0.39
Vividness: 0.032
Warmth: +0.75
Complexity: 91 cells
Hue range: 0.46
Focus: 0.00

Composition

52% of the visual weight is in the right half, 53% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.69 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 51% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 22% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1770
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 179.4 × 123.8 cm
Genre: portrait
Collection: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

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More by Thomas Gainsborough

Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1748
Portrait of a Lady in Blue, 1780