Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727-1788

John Hunter;

Hunter sale, 29th January 1794, lot 18 (with another), bt by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Bt.;

by descent to the present owner

This drawing is similar in date and technique to the previous one, but with the addition of white chalk. Both are drawn on a wove paper rather than the traditional laid paper. Gainsborough was one of the first artists to see the benefit of using an `unlined' paper. The motif of a herdsman and cattle on a winding track is common in Gainsborough's drawings - a slightly later drawing, formerly in the collection of the Cavendish family at Holker Hall, has the same motif and Thomas Rowlandson chose to produce a soft-ground etching of the composition for his book Imitation of Modern Drawings (see Hugh Belsey, `A Picture ought to be like a Tune:', essay in Thomas Gainsborough -Themes and Variations. The Art of Landscape, Exhibition Catalogue 2003, p.11, fig. 6). Another version of the present drawing is in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester (Hayes,  op. cit., no.637)