- Gainsborough (1727-1788), Thomas
- Study of a Woodman
- c.1787
- Drawing
- Black chalk and stump with white chalk on buff paper
- 48.2x32 cm
- Inv. Nr. 1999.083
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During Gainsborough’s final years, the figure of a woodman became a constant preoccupation. This study, along with a number of other drawings, prefigured his most prominent work on the theme: a large canvas that he completed in 1787, which he considered to be one of his finest accomplishments. Shortly before his death, Gainsborough wrote to Reynolds inviting him to view this painting at his home. It is thought that Reynolds accepted the offer, though his opinion of the painting is not recorded. In 1810 the picture was destroyed in a fire at Exton Hall; it is today known only though an engraving by Peter Simon, published after Gainsborough’s death, in 1791 (Gainsborough’s House Accession Number 1990.028).
In Gainsborough’s final composition, the woodman is shown standing, accompanied by a dog, with his hat discarded on the floor in front of him. In contrast, he is depicted here sitting on a boulder, with his arms casually resting on his legs and his hat held loosely in his right hand. A study of the same sitter, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago (Regenstein Collection, 1993.175), shows him seated in more upright posture, with his hands in his lap and his hat on his head. In a further drawing, at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada (Accession number 1928-002), the artist’s subject is drawn from a reversed angle. The great variety of these studies, which may have been the product of a single sitting, allows us to see the artist’s working methods, in which different postures were tested out in preparation for his large canvas.
Henry Bate-Dudley described the finished picture in the Morning Herald on 14 July 1787: “This wonderful memorial of genius is a portrait, the original being a poor smith worn out by labour, and now a pensioner upon accidental charity. Mr Gainsborough was struck with his careworn aspect and took him home; he enabled the needy wanderer by his generosity to live – and made him immortal by his art! He painted him in the character of a woodman; and to account for his dejected visage introduced a violent storm”. - Purchased with an anonymous donation given through the National Art Collections Fund and the Gainsborough's House Society Development Trust with grants from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Art Collections Fund, June 1999
