*Mona Lisa* stare: Thomas Gainsborough’s *The Blue Boy,* 1770.

Out of the Blue

A century after Gainsborough’s Mona Lisa–esque Blue Boy left the U.K. for California, it’s back on show in London. So who was the boy in blue?

By Harry Mount

He is one of the most beautiful, ravishingly dressed, mysterious boys in the world. And now he’s coming home, a century after he left Britain.

The Blue Boy, Gainsborough’s 1770 masterpiece, with his enigmatic stare and lavish outfit, has long captivated art lovers — and millionaires. In 1922, an American tycoon bought the picture for the highest price ever paid for a painting and it left these shores for California, where it has stayed - until now.