The Painter's Daughters, Emily Howes

Read by The Book Club, February 2025

A fictionalised novel about Thomas Gainsborough's daughters, filled with ekphrasis

Emily Howes first novel tells the fictionalised story of Thomas Gainsborough’s daughters and their life in Suffolk and then Bath. These two sisters, Peggy and Molly, grow up best friends but it soon becomes apparent that Molly tends to be forgetful and a little confused. Peggy works hard to keep this a secret from her parents and society around them. Easy enough in rural Suffolk but much more difficult in Bath.

Drawing extensively on letters and on Gainsborough’s paintings Howe builds some great characters. I kept reaching for my phone to google the paintings which you could picture in your head just from the words. Howes has clearly also drawn on her Austen - Gainsborough and Austen were contemporaries and Mrs Gainsborough bears considerable resemblance to Mrs Bennett!

The story is told largely through the voice of Peggy, but a second voice, that of Meg, also takes a turn. It takes a while for the reader to work out the link and deduce that Meg is the Grandmother of Peggy and Molly. This is a clever indulgence where Emily Howes has found a possible link between the madness of Molly and the madness of King George V. No-one will ever know whether she is right but it is certainly an interesting thought process to follow.This is a novel filled with good ideas, not always followed through - brilliant chapter headings fizzle out, and the language is too modern in some places. I questioned the theme of bulimia which runs through but a more knowledgeable member of the group told us that this was quite common in the 1700s.

Someone mentioned an interview with Emily Howes. There are a couple but I think this was the one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLqH8_FVYB8).

Overall everyone really enjoyed this book - and we even remembered to score it! A Seven for Emily Howes’ ‘The Painters Daughters’!

Notes by Helen Scott