A Herdsman with Three Cows by an Upland Pool

watercolor, ink and oil paint heightened with white chalk ("Bristol lead white")Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727–1788)/mid-1780s

Description

Although he was one of the most celebrated society portraitists of his day, landscape painting was Thomas Gainsborough’s love and lifelong pleasure. Here, delicate layers of watercolor, ink, oil paint, and chalk result in a jewel-like work on paper. The composition combines the rural scene of a herdsman and three cows with an imagined, majestic mountain view, mingling the pastoral with the sublime. The sheet was among a group of 14 landscape drawings that Gainsborough selected as a gift for a close friend.

Provenance

Goodenough Earle, Barton Grange, Somerset, England; Francis Miller Newton, by descent to Josepha Sophia Newton; Josepha Sophia Newton; Francis Wheat Newton; (Agnew's, London); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY); George D. Widener [1889-1971], Philadelphia; Private collection, by descent to private collection, United States; Private collection, United States; David Lee, UK, by descent to private collection; Private collection; (Lowell Libson, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Dimensions

21.9 × 31.3 cm

Source

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Movement / Period

Drawings

Accession No

2006.156

Official Citations

[The Cleveland Museum of Art Official Record][Full Resolution Image]

Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727–1788)

Drawings • England, 18th century • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries

Continuous Discovery