Zac

Gainsborough: portrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews. In this early masterpiece, Gainsborough depicts the couple's own estate. Mr Andrews carries a gun, while his wife sits on an elaborate wooden bench. The painting is a so-called conversation piece - a small-scale portrait of two or more people, often out of doors - that allows Gainsborough to display his skills as a painter of convincingly changing weather and naturalistic scenery, still a novelty at this time.

There'll be a little bit more about the painting later, but, just to reassure you that this isn't (completely) going to be an art lecture, here's a picture - though it's still a pretty arty one - of this week's HMBoy Zac.

Zac, as you can see, is very cute.

He's also very bright and self-confident (notice the way that, unlike some of the HMBoys who look can terribly embarrassed by the whole modelling process, he holds his gaze on the camera in virtually every single picture).

But, unfortunately, as a model he's also a pain in the ass.

Now, don't get me wrong.

We love it when the boys bring something of themselves to the photo session.

Sometimes they bring a range of their favourite clothes - though the ones that do that may, I think, just be missing the point!

Sometimes they bring a few props.

Sometimes they contribute a whole storyline.

But Zac brought his mouth.

And, although he kept it resolutely closed for almost all the shots themselves (which is odd, considering what a great smile he has), it was permanently open in between them.

The boy would just not stop talking.

And was he opinionated, or what?

Like I say, he became a complete pain in the ass.

He insisted on this… and that… and the other…

Mostly they were little points of detail about how he wanted the lights to be positioned and things like that.

But one thing he insisted on.

The blue sheet.

I can't say I liked it at all. To me it's a very cold colour.

But Zac, of course, knew better.

"You may not realise it," he said, "but I'm actually studying the history of art.

"And I've brought the blue sheet along to make a point.

"Blue was traditionally thought to be a bad colour to put near the foreground in a painting. In the eighteenth century Sir Joshua Reynolds taught his students that as a fact.

"So his arch rival Thomas Gainsborough deliberately painted one of his most famous portraits with a woman in a bright blue dress, just to show it could be done.

"And that's the point I'm trying to make here with this sheet."

I indulged Zac.

Just this once.

I let him put the bright blue sheet in the pics.

I'll leave you to judge whether that blue sheet "works" - or whether it's just an over-prominent distraction.

But I guess that, whatever the case, I'm always going to remember Zac by the name of another famous Gainsborough painting: The Blue Boy.

Gainsborough: The Blue Boy