Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727 - 1788

Possibly the Hon. Richard Savage Nassau (1723-1780), who married Anne, Dowager Duchess of Hamilton;
By descent to Susan, Duchess of Hamilton (died 1859) as 'The Lakes of Cumberland';
Hamilton sale, Christie's November 6-7 1919, lot 19, with incorrect measurement, bt. Agnew's and Sully & Co., New York for 2,800 gns.;
With Duveen after 1922,  and given by him to Sir Philip Sassoon c. 1928;
Sir Philip Sassoon's sale, Christie's, April 27 1934, lot 102, bt. Tooth for £483;
William A. Coolidge and thence by descent until sold by his estate, Christie's, New York, 31st January 1997, lot 111 for $400,000

Yokohama, The Yokohama Museum of Art, Transparent Windows: Politics of Landscape, 2003, no. 47, illus. p. 63

G. Fulcher, Life of Gainsborough, 1856, p. 231;
Sir Walter Armstong, Gainsborough and his Place in English Art, 1898, p. 205;
Sir Walter Armstrong, Thomas Gainsborough, 1904, p. 283;
E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p. 108, no. 842;
John Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1982, II, p. 408, no. 70, illus.;
K. Esielonis, The William Appleton Coolidge Collection, 1995, pp. 149-50, no. 37;
J. Hayes, Thomas Gainsborough, Exhibition Catalogue, Ferrara 1998, p. 72, fig. 47

This fine landscape, which dates from c. 1757-1758, is clear evidence of the mature mastery which Gainsborough had achieved during his productive years in Ipswich where he lived from June 1752 until he moved to Bath in 1759. The whole composition has a rich texture characteristic of the finest Ipswich period landscapes, and the soft distant landscape in the centre of the picture forms an effective contrast to the tight handling of much of the foreground with its keenly observed details.

In his catalogue of Gainsborough's landscapes, John Hayes has pointed out that "it is generally true to say of Gainsborough's work of the 1750's that he never painted the Suffolk countryside at all, only its character and its atmosphere". It is this atmosphere and character which is so successfully captured in this painting, and in order to achieve this Gainsborough made use of motifs which he observed from life. Examples in this case are the cattle crossing the bridge (a favourite motif which appears in many later drawings and paintings), the two donkeys in the foreground and the two rustic lovers by the road side. The landscape is essentially a carefully arranged distillation of what Gainsborough had observed in the Suffolk countryside, possibly using studies done from life, but then meticulously planned in his studio. Reynolds referred to this technique in his Fourteenth Discourse: "From the fields (Gainsborough) brought into his painting room, stumps of trees, weeds, and animals of various kinds; and designed them; not from memory but immediately from the objects. He even framed a kind of mould of landskips on his table; composed of broken stones, dried herbs and pieces of looking glass, which he magnified and improved into rocks, trees and water".

This landscape shares with many others from the Ipswich period the influence of several seventeenth century Dutch landscape painters whose work was starting to appear in profusion in London sales in the 1740's and which Gainsborough would certainly have seen whilst he was there. The winding track and the low horizon draw on elements from the works of both Ruisdael and Wijnants, and Gainsborough owned works by both artists. The meticulously detailed plants in the right foreground certainly owe a debt to Wijnants, whilst the prominent trunk of the tree to the left echoes Ruisdael. However the soft treatment of the hills on the distant horizon and the atmospheric glow of the early evening light are closer to the work of Berchem and Both, the so-called 'Dutch Italianates'. John Hayes has pointed out that the device of the lighter trees in the centre between the tints of the sky and the strong green colours of the principle tree is borrowed from Claude. In fact it is the influence of Claude which sets this landscape apart from his earlier work. The middle distance for example is reminiscent in many ways of Claude's campagna, despite the East Anglian church tower visible in the far distance. In the nineteenth century the landscape was listed as "The Lakes of Cumberland" and though this is clearly not accurate, it does reflect an obvious appreciation of the 'picturesque' quality of the landscape. In some respects this atmospheric glow is closer to Claude than to East Anglia, but this does not lessen the feeling that this is the work of an artist who knew and loved his native Suffolk countryside and had observed many of the details in it himself.

Very few of Gainsborough's landscapes were the result of a direct commission and it is often difficult to establish their early provenance. However, John Hayes has suggested that this landscape could be a commission by Richard Nassau for the White House, Easton Park. In about 1757, at approximately the same time as he painted this landscape, Gainsborough painted a splendid full length portrait of Nassau with a fine landscape background. Nassau, the son of Frederick, 3rd Earl of Rochford, married Anne, Dowager Duchess of Hamilton on 22nd December 1751 and this landscape was recorded in 1856 as belonging to Susan Beckford, Duchess of Hamilton, wife of Anne's grandson, the 10th Duke of Hamilton. This clear link with an early patron of Gainsborough makes it very likely that he commissioned this landscape.