Portrait of Johann Christian Bach

{{Short description|Painting by Thomas Gainsborough}}

{{Infobox artwork

| image_file=File:Johann Christian Bach by Thomas Gainsborough.jpg

| image_size=250px

| title=Portrait of Johann Christian Bach

| artist= Thomas Gainsborough

| year= 1776

| type=Oil on canvas, portrait painting

| height_metric=75.5

| width_metric= 62

| height_imperial=

| width_imperial=

| metric_unit=cm

| imperial_unit=in

| museum=National Portrait Gallery

| city=London

}}

Portrait of Johann Christian Bach is a 1776 portrait painting by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough.Ingamells p.22Asfour & Williamson p.148 The sitter was a German-born composer who hailed from Bach family, a prominent musical dynasty which included his father Johann Sebastian Bach. Because of his long-standing residence in Britain he became known as the "English Bach".Kamen p.148

Gainsborough was based in the fashionable city of Bath between 1759 and 1774 concentrating on portraits of society figures as well as leading artists and musicians, before he relocated to London where he continued his practice. He was a friend of Bach and when a painting was required of him for a gallery of prominent musicians in Bologna for Giovanni Battista Martini, Bach chose his English friend to produce the portrait. Bach commissioned a second version for himself. Today this version painting is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, having been acquired in 1983.{{cite web | url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw07058 | title=Johann Christian Bach - National Portrait Gallery }}