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Thomas Gainsborough , English, 1727-1788

Title

Landscape with Cattle

Datec.1767

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

128 x 99 cm

Credit LineBequeathed, Sir Hugh Lane, 1918

Object numberNGI.796

ProvenanceCarl Friederich Abel; Greenwood's, 13 December 1787, Abel Sale, lot 45; John Crosdill, by 1814; by descent, General Thoyts to Mrs Hautenville Cope; Christie's, London, 6 May 1910, anon. [Cope] sale, lot 93, bought by Sir Hugh Lane; sold to Arthur Grenfell; Christie's, London, 26 June 1914, Grenfell sale, lot 45, bt. by Sir Hugh Lane; bequeathed, Sir Hugh Lane, 1918Exhibition HistoryPicture by the Late William Hogarth, Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough, and J. Zofani, British Institution, London, 5 May-20 August 1814

Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Royal Academy, London, 1876

The Works of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., Grosvenor Gallery, London, winter and spring 1885

Fine Art Club, Ipswich, 1887

Pictures by Old Masters given and bequethed to the National Gallery of Ireland by the Late Sir Hugh Lane, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1918

Thomas Gainsborough Bicentenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1927

Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough, Nottingham University Art Gallery, Nottingham, November 1962

Gainsborough, Grand Palais, Paris, February - April 1981

In the light of Cuyp. Aelbert Cuyp & Gainsborough - Constable -Turner, Dordrechts Museum, The Netherlands, 03 October 2021 - 08 May 2022

Label TextCattle move slowly across a sun-drenched landscape, directed by a herdsman and peasant girl, in this tranquil landscape. Gainsborough painted this scene while living in Bath. Realistic details show his close observation of nature, but he also consciously studied great artists of the past. The landscape is inspired by a painting of Dordrecht by the Dutch seventeenth-century artist Albert Cuyp. Gainsborough created a more dramatic composition through the inclusion of a great sweep of clouds. In Gainsborough’s time Cuyp's painting was owned by his friend, the musician Carl Abel.