This is one of eight stamps printed on the same sheet and honoring the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union. Letter-writing themes were selected from major pieces of art.

Thomas Gainsborough was, with his main rival Reynolds, the leading portrait painter in England in the later 18th century. The feathery brushwork of his mature work and rich sense of color contribute to the enduring popularity of his portraits. Unlike Reynolds, he avoids references to Italian Renaissance art or the antique, and shows his sitters in fashionable contemporary dress.

He was a foundation member of the Royal Academy, though he later quarreled with it over the hanging of his pictures. He became a favorite painter of George III and his family.

He was born at Sudbury, Suffolk, the son of a wool manufacturer. He trained in London, and set up in practice in Ipswich about 1752. In 1759 he moved to Bath, a fashionable spa, attracting many clients for his portraits. He settled in London in 1774. His private inclination was for landscape and rustic scenes, and his amusing letters record his impatience with his clients' demand for portraits.