Gainsborough portraits unveiled

The portraits were last exhibited in 1886

Two Gainsborough portraits will go on public display for the first time in 120 years, in Somerset.

National Trust's Dunster Castle will house the portraits, on loan from a private collection, from 14 March until 1 November.

The oil portraits feature the Honourable George Somerville and his daughter, Anne, on the day of her wedding to Reverend Thomas Fownes.

Thomas Gainsborough was a portrait and landscape painter of 18th Century.

The two featured in the portraits are relatives of the Luttrell family who lived in the castle in the 15th Century.

John Wood, Dunster Castle house manager, said: "It's as if two long lost relatives are returning to the halls of the Luttrell family."

The portraits, briefly exhibited in 1886, will be displayed in the grand dining room next to the family portraits of Henry and Margaret Fownes Luttrell.

To view the official hanging of the Gainsborough portraits at Dunster Castle, click on the link below.

'Long lost relatives'

The first of the unseen Gainsboroughs into the National Trust’s Dunster Castle is brought into Dunster Castle. This is Lady Anne Fownes on the day of her wedding. All pics by Maurice Flynn, National Trust.