Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.
Wooded landscape with horseman and horse drinking at a trough
Auction Closed
July 5, 10:16 AM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Thomas Gainsborough R.A.
Sudbury 1727 - 1788 London
Wooded landscape with horseman and horse drinking at a trough
Pen and brown ink and grey wash, heightened with white, varnished
240 by 185 mm
by descent to Richard James Lane (1800-1872), the artist's great-nephew,
his sale, London, Christie's, 25 February 1831, lot 101 (one of two) bt. Tiffin;
Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919);
Henry Joseph Pfungst (1844-1917),
his executor's sale, London, Christie's, 15 June 1917, lot 5, bt. Donaldson,
Sir George Donaldson (1845-1925)
Henry Schniewind Junior, New York;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 July 2004, lot 7,
with Jill Newhouse, New York,
by whom sold to the present owner, 2004
E.S. Siple, 'Gainsborough Drawings: The Schniewind Collection', The Connoisseur, June 1934, pp. 357-358, p. 358, illus.;
M. Woodall, Gainsborough's Landscape Drawings, London 1939, p.471;
J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1970, pp. 38 & 219, no. 480;
J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1982, p. 471, no. 124a, illus.;
S. Sloman, Gainsborough's Landscape: Themes and Variations, New York 2011, pp. 43 & 46, fig. 11
Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., 1931, no. 70
Gainsborough, born and raised in rural Suffolk, had a deep love for the countryside, its people and its ways. Despite his stratospheric success as portrait painter, it was his work as a landscape artist that gave him particular pleasure and served as a release from the pressures of portraying high society.
The present drawing sees Gainsborough returning to a favourite theme, that of animals at rest. Using a sophisticated combination of media, which he has applied with the utmost freedom and spontaneity, Gainsborough has produced an image that is full of subtly and emotion. He coveys perfectly the weariness of the horses, their gratitude at having been led to water and the clear concern that the young boy has for their welfare. This ‘everyday’ scene takes on an immense grandeur in the hands of one of the greatest British artists of any period.
The drawing has previously been dated to the late 1770s by John Hayes, who also suggested that it was made in preparation for a major oil painting that Gainsborough exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780.1 More recently, Susan Sloman has proposed a slightly earlier date, the mid 1770s, and has suggested that it forms part of Gainsborough's long exploration of the theme of animals in repose that can been traced back to at least the 1750s.2
We are grateful to Susan Sloman for her help when cataloguing this lot.
1. J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1982, p. 471, no. 124
2. Woodland landscape with two carthorses, 1755; see S. Sloman, op. cit, p. 37, fig. 12