Gainsborough’s name is synonymous with Suffolk, but it was his daughters, one who suffered from mental illness and the other who cared for her, who grabbed Emily Howes’ imagination and inspired her to write a novel about them Visiting the National Gallery on a whim one day, Emily Howes had no idea that a special exhibition of 18th century paintings would affect her so deeply. ‘It was a collection of portraits by Thomas Gainsborough of his family and friends, people he loved,’ she says. ‘All around were these beautiful pictures of his children.
But there was also a huge portrait of his two daughters as adults and the transformation caught my eye. They looked so stiff and frozen and so unhappy.’ Author Emily Howes.
(Image: Katrina Campbell) The plaque alongside the painting told their story in just three lines. ‘It said that one of them had suffered from mental illness and the other had looked after her. I was so intrigued and moved that I immediately wanted to find out more about what had happened to them in the intervening time.
’ Emily bought books about Gainsborough and his work by Susan Sloman and James Hamilton from the gallery shop and for the next four years immersed herself in the lives of the artist, his wife and his daughters, creating an acclaimed novel called The Painter’s Daughters. It tells of Peggy and Molly Gainsborough and how their carefree childhood in Suffolk is disrupted when the family moves to Bath for their father, Thomas, to earn his l.