The Blue Boy [SEP] collection
The Blue Boy
The Blue Boy (c. 1770) is a full-length portrait in oil by Thomas Gainsborough, now in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
History.
Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall (1752–1805), the son of a wealthy hardware merchant, although this has never been proven. It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in his seventeenth-century apparel is regarded as Gainsborough's homage
leaves are large.  
Cultivation.
'Boy Blue' is not known to be in cultivation beyond the UK. A specimen is grown as part of the NCCPG national collection at the Longstock Park Nursery near Stockbridge. 
Synonymy.
- "Buddleja" 'Blue Boy' (original name before registration).
- "Buddleja" × "weyeriana" 'Boy Blue'