Blank greetings card with envelope featuring:

Karl Friedrich Abel NPG 5081

© National Portrait Gallery, London

by Thomas Gainsborough

Drawings enabled artists to refine compositions before committing paint to canvas. This lively drawing by Gainsborough of his friend Karl Abel, a musician, is a preliminary study for an oil painting. The bold, impressionistic handling shows that Gainsborough's draftsmanship had much in common with his painting style. Abel's clothes are, however, different in the final portrait and he holds a different musical instrument. This image therefore probably dates from an early sitting, representing Gainsborough's initial thoughts for the composition.

Card size: 125mm x 175mm

Images are printed in their original proportions, within a white border.