Portrait of The Blue Boy, 1770. Oil on canvas, 177.8 cm × 112.1 cm (70.0 in × 44.1 in), Huntington Library, San Marino, California
The Blue Boy (c. 1770) is an oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough. Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant, although this was never proved. It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in his 17th-century apparel is regarded as Gainsborough's homage to Anthony Van Dyck, and in particular is very close to Van Dyck's portrait of Charles II as a boy.
Gainsborough had already painted something on the canvas before beginning The Blue Boy, which he painted over. The painting itself is on a fairly large canvas for a portrait, measuring 48 inches (1,200 mm) wide by 70 inches (1,800 mm) tall. The portrait now resides in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
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