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Wooded Landscape with Herdsman and Cattle
  • Gainsborough (1727-1788), Thomas
  • Wooded Landscape with Herdsman and Cattle

  • c.1775
  • Drawing
  • Pen and ink, grey and black washes, white chalk and traces of black chalk on paper
  • 26.7x35 cm
  • Inv. Nr. 1988.012
  • In this drawing, a small group of cattle are being driven in procession down a wooded bank. The herdsman rests his staff on his shoulder and follows the pack from behind. The sun, which sits low in the sky in the distance, shines through a gap in the trees, depicted by Gainsborough with bold white highlights. A mixture of black chalk and pen wash is used to delineate the large shadow cast by a mound and tree on the left.

    The sheet is thought to date from around 1775, shortly after Gainsborough had returned to London from Bath. Compositionally, it appears to relate to his painting ‘The Watering Place’, exhibited with great acclaim at the Royal Academy in 1777. Several contemporary commentators, including Horace Walpole, reviewed the work favourably. The subject matter echoes a painting of the same title by Rubens, painted around 1620 and owned by the Duke of Montagu; Gainsborough saw this pictuere in London in 1768 and was evidently influenced by it.

  • Presented by Miss Maud L. Wethered, May 1988
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