- The Blue Boy
"For all other uses of" Blueboy "and" Blue Boy "see"
Blueboy .Infobox Painting|
title=The Blue Boy
artist=Thomas Gainsborough
year=circa1770
type=oil on canvas
height=177.8
width=112.1
city=San Marino, California
museum=Huntington Library"The Blue Boy" (c. 1770) is an
oil painting byThomas Gainsborough that now resides in theHuntington Library ,San Marino, California . The painting itself is on a fairly large canvas for a portrait that measures 48 inches wide by 70 inches tall. Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant. Gainsborough had originally painted something different on the canvas but then decided to paint the portrait of the blue boy over it. It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in his 17th-century apparel is regarded as Gainsborough's homage toAnthony Van Dyck , and in particular is very close to Van Dyck's portrait of Charles II as a boy (below).It has been said that Gainsborough painted the portrait mainly to prove to his chief rival
Joshua Reynolds that it was possible to use blue as the central color of a portrait, but this statement has been discredited: the rumor began circulating after Gainsborough's death and Reynolds had painted portraits in blue long before.Fact|date=October 2007The painting was in Jonathan Buttall's possession until he filed for bankruptcy in 1796. It was bought first by the politician John Nesbitt and then, in 1802, by the portrait painter
John Hoppner . In about 1809 "The Blue Boy" entered the collection of the Earl Grosvenor and remained with his descendants until its sale by the second Duke of Westminster to the dealerJoseph Duveen in 1921. In a move that caused a public outcry in Britain, it was then sold on to the American railway pioneer Henry Edwards Huntington for $182,200 (then a record price for any painting) (According to a mention in the New York Times, dated Nov. 11, 1921, the purchase price was $640,000). Before its departure toCalifornia in 1922, "The Blue Boy" was briefly put on display at the National Gallery where it was seen by 90,000 people; the Gallery's directorCharles Holmes was moved to scrawl "Au revoir" on the back of the painting.Appearances in popular culture
*
Cole Porter 's 1922 song "Blue Boy Blues", lamenting the "Blue Boy"'s fate, was composed shortly after the painting was sold to Huntington.* In the 1929
Laurel and Hardy short "Wrong Again ", the pair learn that a reward is being offered for "The Blue Boy", which they believe to be not a painting but rather a prize horse at the stable where they work. Hilarity ensues as they attempt to deposit the horse at the home of the painting's wealthy owner.* In the 1988
comedy film "" the Blue Boy (or a facsimile) hangs in the office of the wealthy villain played byRicardo Montalbán , where it is eventually destroyed byLeslie Nielsen 's bumblingprotagonist during a botched break-in attempt.
*In the 1989 film "Batman", the painting is at the base of the staircase inGotham City 's Flugelheim Museum. It is visible as The Joker dances up the stairs, and one of his minions spray paints over it.* In "
Ghostbusters II " (1989), Dr. Janosz Poha exclaims toDana Barrett , with heavy accent, "That's not Gainsborough's "Blue Boy", there. He is Vigo!"* A 1990 "Life" magazine cover story [http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/tributes/henson/hensonarticle6.shtml] on the then-recently deceased
Jim Henson described a Kermit version of the portrait hanging in the second-floorconference room of the 1928brownstone that served as Henson'sNew York City headquarters.* In "
Richie Rich (film) " (1994), the painting hangs in Richie's bedroom.*
Reginald Barclay 's holodeck recreation ofWesley Crusher saw him dressed as the Blue Boy in the third season "" episode "Hollow Pursuits ."* In "
Die Another Day " (2002), James Bond manages to slice through the painting with a sword whilst sparring.* "Blue Boy" is an album by Canadian songwriter
Ron Sexsmith .* "The Blue Boy" is also a painting in
Nintendo 's "".* In "" (
2007 ) Gus appears dressed as the Blue Boy in a painting in the end credits.* In issues #4 and #8 of Darwyn Cooke's relaunch of Will Eisner's acclaimed comic series "
The Spirit ", the central character is referred to as "Gainsborough" multiple times by supporting characterSilk Satin as The Spirit's costume is primary blue.* In an episode of "", among
Lex Luthor 's lost art collection is a painting he describes as Gainsborough's Yellow Boy.*
Ward Kimball parodied "The Blue Boy" in "Art Afterpieces" as a hepjazz musician , by adding atrumpet ,whiskers andsunglasses to the picture.* In
William Bolcom 's 2004opera "A Wedding" (based on theRobert Altman film also titledA Wedding , with alibretto by Altman and Anthony Weinstein), the character Jules Goddard recalls purchasing the Blue Boy in his Act Iaria , "Pollock,de Kooning and Kline."*In
The Mighty Boosh episode "The Power of the Crimp" from season 3,Bob Fossil callsVince Noir , "My dear, sweet, naive little prince of a Blue Boy."*In the twenty-fifth episode of
Monty Python's Flying Circus , The Blue Boy takes part in a strike of paintings, where "Gainsborough's Blue Boy's brought out the eighteenth-century English portraits, the Flemish School's solid, and the German woodcuts are at a meeting now."*On a 2001 episode of the gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" a contestant was asked what item the subject of The Blue Boy was holding for the $500,000 question. The correct answer of course was "a hat". After narrowing down the answers to "a hat" and "a lute", the contestant correctly answered with "a hat" to win the half million dollars.
*In Disney Channel's "Wizards Of Waverly Place" the "Blue Boy" is featured in the episode "Art Museum Piece" when the star, Alex Russo, needs to get information about the painting and decides to take the Blue Boy out of it and ask him directly.
References
*Conisbee, Philip. "The Ones That Got Away", essay from "Saved! 100 Years of the National Art Collection Fund" (2003, ed. Richard Verdi). London: Scala
* Conlin, Jonathan (2006). "The Nation's Mantelpiece: A history of the National Gallery". London: Pallas Athene
*Tyler, David. "Jonathan Buttall" in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography " (2004). Oxford:Oxford University Press
* [http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art39.htm http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art39.htm]
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