Who Was Alive
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Gainsborough

British landscape painter

Born 14 May 1727 · died 2 August 1788, aged 61
Also known as Gainsbro, Mr. Gainsborough, gainsborough thomas

Who was alive at the same time as Thomas Gainsborough?

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750
  2. Voltaire, 1694 – 1778
  3. Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790
  4. Leonhard Euler, 1707 – 1783
  5. Carl Linnaeus, 1707 – 1778
  6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – 1778
  7. Adam Smith, 1723 – 1790
  8. Immanuel Kant, 1724 – 1804
  9. Thomas Gainsborough, 1727 – 1788
  10. James Cook, 1728 – 1779
  11. George Washington, 1732 – 1799
  12. John Adams, 1735 – 1826
  13. Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826
  14. Francisco Goya, 1746 – 1828
  15. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 – 1832
  16. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 – 1791
  17. Friedrich Schiller, 1759 – 1805
  18. Hokusai, 1760 – 1849
  19. Ludwig van Beethoven, c. 1770 – 1827
  20. Napoleon, 1769 – 1821
  21. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770 – 1831
  22. Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817
  23. Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1777 – 1855
  24. Lord Byron, 1788 – 1824

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Thomas Gainsborough was born, Johann Sebastian Bach was 42, Voltaire was 32, Immanuel Kant was 3, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was 14 and Adam Smith was 3.

When Thomas Gainsborough died, Napoleon was 18, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was 38, George Washington was 56, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 32 and Immanuel Kant was 64.

Born during Thomas Gainsborough’s lifetime: Napoleon, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Byron and Jane Austen.

Not quite contemporaries: Isaac Newton died months before Thomas Gainsborough was born, Victor Hugo was born about 14 years after Thomas Gainsborough died, Alexander Pushkin was born about 11 years after Thomas Gainsborough died and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz died about 11 years before Thomas Gainsborough was born.

What happened in Thomas Gainsborough’s lifetime

Where Thomas Gainsborough’s contemporaries were born

Thomas Gainsborough is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (81 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Thomas Gainsborough

The 150 best-known contemporaries

322 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Thomas Gainsborough. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1758.

  1. Napoleon 1769 – 1821
  2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832
  3. George Washington 1732 – 1799
  4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 – 1791
  5. Ludwig van Beethoven c. 1770 – 1827
  6. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  7. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  8. Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
  9. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  10. Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
  11. Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
  12. Lord Byron 1788 – 1824
  13. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  14. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  15. Jane Austen 1775 – 1817
  16. Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 – 1855
  17. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770 – 1831
  18. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  19. John Adams 1735 – 1826
  20. James Cook 1728 – 1779
  21. Francisco Goya 1746 – 1828
  22. Friedrich Schiller 1759 – 1805
  23. Hokusai 1760 – 1849
  24. James Madison 1751 – 1836
  25. Simón Bolívar 1783 – 1830
  26. Arthur Schopenhauer 1788 – 1860
  27. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  28. John Quincy Adams 1767 – 1848
  29. Andrew Jackson 1767 – 1845
  30. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  31. William Blake 1757 – 1827
  32. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  33. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  34. James Watt 1736 – 1819
  35. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  36. Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
  37. James Monroe 1758 – 1831
  38. Catherine the Great 1729 – 1796
  39. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  40. Martin Van Buren 1782 – 1862
  41. Daniel Defoe c. 1661 – 1731
  42. Zachary Taylor 1784 – 1850
  43. Alexander von Humboldt 1769 – 1859
  44. William Wordsworth 1770 – 1850
  45. William Henry Harrison 1773 – 1841
  46. Walter Scott 1771 – 1832
  47. Stendhal 1783 – 1842
  48. Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
  49. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  50. Marie Antoinette 1755 – 1793
  51. Maximilien Robespierre 1758 – 1794
  52. Joseph Fourier 1768 – 1830
  53. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1780 – 1867
  54. Mary Wollstonecraft 1759 – 1797
  55. Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
  56. Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749 – 1827
  57. Louis XVI 1754 – 1793
  58. Frederick the Great 1712 – 1786
  59. Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
  60. Robert Burns 1759 – 1796
  61. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772 – 1834
  62. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  63. André-Marie Ampère 1775 – 1836
  64. Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827
  65. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  66. William Herschel 1738 – 1822
  67. Edward Jenner 1749 – 1823
  68. Johann Gottlieb Fichte 1762 – 1814
  69. Novalis 1772 – 1801
  70. John Dalton 1766 – 1844
  71. Alexander I of Russia 1777 – 1825
  72. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  73. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  74. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1744 – 1829
  75. Washington Irving 1783 – 1859
  76. George III 1738 – 1820
  77. Carl von Clausewitz 1780 – 1831
  78. Alessandro Manzoni 1785 – 1873
  79. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729 – 1781
  80. Louis XV 1710 – 1774
  81. Maria Theresa 1717 – 1780
  82. Giacomo Casanova 1725 – 1798
  83. Marquis de Sade 1740 – 1814
  84. Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
  85. Thomas Robert Malthus 1766 – 1834
  86. Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794
  87. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson 1758 – 1805
  88. Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813
  89. Alexander Hamilton 1757 – 1804
  90. Niccolò Paganini 1782 – 1840
  91. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 1769 – 1852
  92. Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
  93. Humphry Davy 1778 – 1829
  94. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 1736 – 1806
  95. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  96. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  97. Hans Christian Ørsted 1777 – 1851
  98. Pope Gregory XVI 1765 – 1846
  99. Wilhelm von Humboldt 1767 – 1835
  100. David Ricardo 1772 – 1823
  101. Amedeo Avogadro 1776 – 1856
  102. Isabelle de Charrière 1740 – 1805
  103. Pope Pius VII 1742 – 1823
  104. William IV 1765 – 1837
  105. Friedrich Hölderlin 1770 – 1843
  106. Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais 1732 – 1799
  107. Klemens von Metternich 1773 – 1859
  108. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  109. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 1754 – 1839
  110. Paul I of Russia 1754 – 1801
  111. Jacques-Louis David 1748 – 1825
  112. George IV 1762 – 1830
  113. François-René de Chateaubriand 1768 – 1848
  114. Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804
  115. Georges Danton 1759 – 1794
  116. Pope Leo XII 1760 – 1829
  117. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling 1775 – 1854
  118. E. T. A. Hoffmann 1776 – 1822
  119. Pope Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  120. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  121. Germaine de Staël 1766 – 1817
  122. Thomas Young 1773 – 1829
  123. Caspar David Friedrich 1774 – 1840
  124. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  125. Pope Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  126. Alexander Suvorov 1730 – 1800
  127. Henry Cavendish 1731 – 1810
  128. Louis XVIII 1755 – 1824
  129. Pope Pius VIII 1761 – 1830
  130. George II of Great Britain 1683 – 1760
  131. Daniel Bernoulli 1700 – 1782
  132. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 1746 – 1827
  133. Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor 1768 – 1835
  134. Ivan Krylov 1769 – 1844
  135. José de San Martín 1778 – 1850
  136. Jöns Jacob Berzelius 1779 – 1848
  137. Emanuel Swedenborg 1688 – 1772
  138. Jean-Paul Marat 1743 – 1793
  139. J. M. W. Turner c. 1775 – 1851
  140. Pope Clement XII 1652 – 1740
  141. Nicolas Appert 1749 – 1841
  142. Georges Cuvier 1769 – 1832
  143. Heinrich von Kleist 1777 – 1811
  144. George I of Great Britain 1660 – 1727
  145. Elizabeth of Russia 1709 – 1762
  146. Peter III of Russia 1728 – 1762
  147. Abigail Adams 1744 – 1818
  148. Nikolay Karamzin 1766 – 1826
  149. Vitus Bering 1681 – 1741
  150. Charles X of France 1757 – 1836