# Squire John Wilkinson [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GAINSBOROUGH, Thomas]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 234 x 145 cm ## Commentary Squire John Wilkinson c. 1776 Oil on canvas, 234 x 145 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin In this austere portrait of Squire John Wilkinson, late Gainsborough is seen at his best. Doubtless due to the sitter's demand, this likeness is relatively restrained, even the setting is less glamorised than usual for the painter's later phase \(after 1774\). Wilkinson, a manufacturer of cannon and founder of the British iron industry, was known as the 'Great Staffordshire Ironmaster'; he was a self-proclaimed atheist and follower of Tom Paine. ## Related artworks - [Conversation in a Park]() - [Elizabeth and Thomas Linley]() - [Elizabeth Wrottesly]() - [Isaac Henrique Sequeira]() - [Johann Christian Bach]() - [Johann Christian Fischer]() - [Lady Alston]() - [Lady Bate-Dudley]() - [Landscape in Suffolk]() - [Mary, Countess of Howe]() - [Master John Heathcote]() - [Mr and Mrs Andrews]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()