New director of Sudbury birthplace of world-renowned artist Thomas Gainsborough will direct award-winning venue to major anniversary

A major milestone is looming for the new director of an award-winning Suffolk venue dedicated to the legacy of a world-famous artist.

Calvin Winner has taken the helm at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, just before one of the most significant dates in its history: 300 years since the birth of Thomas Gainsborough.

“In 2027, it will be the 300th anniversary of his birth. Everything we are doing now is aimed at that moment,” said Calvin, who started his new job in early May.

In recent years, the museum and gallery surrounding Thomas Gainsborough’s birthplace have been redesigned.

Calvin is thrilled to be promoting the legacy of an artist he has long admired, having arrived less than two years after the completion of a £10 million project to renovate the original house and build new, modern galleries.

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Visitors can now travel back in time by transforming the historic house where the painter grew up into a stunning three-story extension that combines 21st-century design with traditional, local materials.

In May it was named Building of the Year at the Royal Institute of British Architects’ East Awards and will now go on to compete nationally.

The RIBA judges were impressed by the transformation of what was once a small, local institution into a significant regional and national museum. “Overall, the project is a model for the harmonisation of heritage conservation and contemporary needs,” they added.

“When I heard I had the job I was incredibly excited because of the huge potential. I couldn’t be happier,” said Calvin, who is married and has three children. One son is at university, his daughter will soon study fine art in London and his younger son is just finishing his degree.

He would particularly like to express his gratitude to his predecessor, Mark Bills, who left the company earlier this year to focus on personal projects after leading the turnaround project from start to finish.

“I owe a lot to Mark. Without his ambition to get this project off the ground and see it through, it would not have been possible. It has taken Gainsborough’s house to a new level,” he said.

“The new galleries are there and the old house has been renovated so that Gainsborough’s heritage is better protected. The plan is to make Gainsborough’s house a nationally important art museum and we expect to attract people not only from the region but also from home and abroad.”

He believes Suffolk can be enormously proud that two of the most famous British painters in history, Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, were born in the county.

“Gainsborough is an icon of British art and it is a great asset for us to be here in Sudbury in his house. It opens doors for us internationally.”

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“Among internationally known British artists, Gainsborough, Constable and Turner are the top three – and two of them are from Suffolk. Everyone in Suffolk should be hugely proud. With these two great artists, it’s a powerhouse – and the fact that we have this house where Gainsborough was born is a bonus.”

Getting to know the old house where Thomas was born in 1727, the youngest of nine children, was one of the joys of his new job.

The current number 46 Gainsborough Street – formerly Sepulchre Street – was bought by the artist’s parents, John and Mary, for £230 in 1722. Behind the Georgian-style brick façade lies a 16th-century half-timbered house.

The house became a museum and gallery after the Gainsborough’s House Society launched a campaign to raise money to buy it in the 1950s.

“I’ve always loved artists’ houses,” Calvin said. “That direct connection has always appealed to me. And the fact that we have practicing artists on site here in the Print Studio is extremely attractive… an artists’ house where artists are still working.”

“It seems to me that the music room (in the old house) was once the master bedroom where Gainsborough was born. We have a 400-year-old mulberry tree in the garden under which young Tom played.

“I walk into the old house and the garden and his presence is palpable. His presence is definitely there, in the space where the artist was. Then you step out into the city and the landscape and that is what he was inspired by.

“We will be holding a major exhibition here to mark his 300th birthday. To make this possible, we are working with the Tate and the National Galleries.

“The plan is to gradually expand the exhibitions and attract more visitors by 2027 – a mix of historical and contemporary works.

“We will probably have more contemporary shows here in the future than we have had so far, but Gainsboorugh and his time will still be important.”

The next major exhibition will feature two renowned artists – the painter and gardener Cedric Morris and his partner Lett Haines, who lived and taught in Hadleigh for many years.

Among her pupils was the famous Suffolk artist Maggi Hambling, who was born in Sudbury and is a staunch supporter of Gainsborough’s House, where she had an exhibition last year.

“They are doubly attractive because they are both regionally and nationally significant artists,” Calvin said.

“The benchmark will always be Thomas Gainsborough… we will show great art nationally and internationally, and it will have to meet the same standard as Gainsborough himself.”

“We have the potential to become an internationally important museum and the people who have visited us recognize this potential.

Calvin came to Gainsborough’s House from the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, where he was Head of Collections.

“I’m originally from West Norfolk and studied art history at Camberwell College of Art. After college I immediately started working in museums.

“I was at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and then at the Tate Gallery in London for ten years, where I was involved in the project to create Tate Modern.

“I then went to the Sainsbury Centre where I stayed for 16 years. I wasn’t actively looking for another job but was ready for the next opportunity.

“What attracted me to Gainsborough’s House was the large-scale project that already existed, the fact that it was an artist’s house, the print studio and the possibility of hosting major exhibitions.

“For me, the fact that Suffolk has this great artistic heritage and we are surrounded by these beautiful landscapes is extremely appealing.

“Thomas Gainsborough was one of the first British artists to start painting landscapes and my admiration for him developed during my time at the Tate.

“His talent was evident at a young age. He was clearly precocious. He was a young boy with a huge talent who developed quite quickly into a virtuoso artist.

“He painted incredible pictures at a very young age. He painted Mr. & Mrs. Andrews and Cornard Wood when he was just 20.”

Many of Gainsborough’s best-known paintings are portraits – he was a popular painter of the royal family and painted both King George III and his wife Queen Charlotte – but his heart was in the landscape.

And it was his love of the views of Suffolk from his youth that influenced him for the rest of his life.

“We know that he preferred his landscapes to portraits, but he had to live in his time and painters, unless they were gentlemen, had to paint portraits,” Calvin explained.

“The whole atmosphere of his landscapes is Suffolk. Even as a child he was absorbed in the landscape and sketched.

“His parents really appreciated his talent. They supported him and sent him to London for training. It seems like they were a very close family and supported each other.

“From what we read about Gainsborough, he was definitely a character. He enjoyed being with friends, he loved music, he was a cosmopolitan person.

“What he achieved in his life is astonishing. He came from the merchant class – his parents were weavers. He was not a high-ranking person and was able to achieve great things through talent.”

Thomas moved to Ipswich after his marriage to Margaret. They had three daughters, but the eldest died in infancy.

In search of wealthier customers, the family then moved to elegant Bath, where they stayed for 15 years, and finally to London.

“He had really made it by that point, but he was always in regular contact with his family in Suffolk,” Calvin said. “We have archival letters in our collections.”

The house also has what is probably the largest collection of Gainsborough’s works in the country, which are shown on a rotating basis.

A Gainsborough gallery in the new building, its walls lined with sumptuous dark green silk from Sudbury firm Humphries Weaving, is the perfect setting for the artist’s larger works, including those on loan.

The Timothy and Mary Clode Gallery, named after a couple who were among the main donors to the restoration, hosts major exhibitions.

The old house, with its more intimate, domestic atmosphere, has rooms dedicated to aspects of Gainsborough’s life and also displays works by other artists.

“We usually have two or three exhibitions going on at the same time – two or three in the new gallery, not counting the Gainsborough Room, and one in the old house.

“I feel very fortunate to be here to represent Thomas Gainsborough and to have the museum where we can present impressive exhibitions – we have history and huge potential,” said Calvin.

For more information about Gainsborough’s House, its history and exhibitions, visit gainsborough.org.