1727 Born in Sudbury, Suffolk.
1733 Gainsborough’s father, a clothier, is declared bankrupt.
c1740 Trains in London with a French artist named Gravelot. Possibly works with Francis Hayman decorating supper-boxes at Vauxhall pleasure gardens.
1746 Marries Margaret Burr.
1748 His father dies and he returns to Sudbury.
1752 Moves to Ipswich.
1759 Finds it difficult to make a living in Ipswich and consequently moves to Bath.
1768 Founder member of the Royal Academy.
1774 Gainsborough moves with his family to London.
1784 Quarrels with the Royal Academy over the issue of where to hang some of his portraits of royalty.
1788 Dies in London.
c1740 Conversation in a Park, Paris, Musée du Louvre
c1748 Portrait of the Artist with his Wife and Daughter, London, National Gallery
c1749 Mr and Mrs Andrews, London, National Gallery
c1750 Landscape in Suffolk, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1755 John Plampin, London, National Gallery
1756 The Painter's Daughters chasing a Butterfly, London, National Gallery
1760 Ann Ford (Mrs Philip Thicknesse), Cincinnati, Art Museum
1761 The Painter's Daughters with a Cat, London, National Gallery
1762 Lady Alston, Paris, Musée du Louvre
c1764 Mary, Countess Howe, London, Kenwood House
c1767 The Harvest Wagon, Birmingham, Barber Institute of Fine Arts
1770 Portrait of Dr Ralph Schomberg, London, National Gallery
c1770 The Blue Boy (Jonathan Buttall), San Marino, CA, Huntington Library and Art Gallery
1772 The Linley Sisters, London, Dulwich Picture Gallery
1773 Landscape with Cattle, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art
c1775 Lady in Blue (Duchess of Beaufort), St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
1777 The Watering Place, London, National Gallery
1778 Portrait of James Christie, Malibu, J Paul Getty Museum
1781 Mrs Robinson 'Perdita’, London, Wallace Collection
1781 King George III, London, Royal Collection
1782 Giovanna Baccelli, London, Tate
1783 The Mall in St James‰’s Park, New York, Frick Collection
1785 Mrs Siddons, London, National Gallery
c1785 Mr And Mrs William Hallett (The Morning Walk), London, National Gallery
1787 The Marsham Children, Berlin, Staatliche Museen