Landscape with Cottage and Stream
Watercolour
ca. 1750 (painted)
ca. 1750 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) spent the early part of his artistic career in Suffolk, England. This is one of the very few watercolour drawings to survive from this period. Gainsborough sometimes made his drawings and watercolours for publication as engraved prints. He also made them for sale or to present to patrons and collectors. He must have made this watercolour for sale. It is highly finished and around the picture you can still see the double lines he drew as a framing border.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Landscape with Cottage and Stream (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | drawn with watercolours and pencil |
| Brief description | Watercolour by Gainsborough, Thomas (RA); Landscape with a cottage and stream; watercolour and pencil; Probably painted in Suffolk; English School; ca. 1750. |
| Physical description | Landscape, with a cottage partly hidden by trees on the left and a stream on the right crossed by a wooden bridge, over which a pedlar is passing; a village church in the distance; Drawn with watercolours and pencil. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label | Provisional label written by Ronald Parkinson for his travelling exhibition and accompanying book British Watercolours at the Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A Publications, 1998.]
Thomas GAINSBOROUGH R.A. (1727-1788)
LANDSCAPE WITH COTTAGE AND STREAM about 1750
Inscribed?
29.9 x 36.2 cm
Dyce Bequest 1869
D.676
This is one of the very few watercolour drawings to have survived from Gainsborough's early period in his native Suffolk. He made his drawings and watercolours either for publication as engraved prints, or for sale or presentation to patrons and collectors. This watercolour was almost certainly intended for sale, probably through his London dealer Panton Betew, who stocked Gainsborough's work in the 1750s. It is highly finished, and retains the original double lines drawn as a framing border around the pictorial image.
All the elements of a picturesque landscape are here: the tree stumps, the rustic bridge, the thatched cottage, the distant church spire, and the labourer crossing the river with his sack and staff. The colours are pale, subtle shades of green, yellow and ochre, and the sky a limpid blue. The foliage is rapidly rendered with diagonal loops by both the brush with watercolour and the pencil. The grasses in the foreground, at the bank of the river, are more vigorously treated, giving even more the effect of a living organism. It is a wonderful example of Gainsborough's ability to combine the medium of watercolour with the use of pencils of various strengths to create a soft and at the same time carefully detailed image. The reflection on the river's surface of the bridge, for instance, is rendered with light pencil strokes over the watercolour, achieving the desired shimmering effect.
The watercolour was purchased, probably in the late eighteenth century, by George Frost, an 'ardent admirer' of Gainsborough according to one obituary of Frost, and a great friend of Constable; Frost wrote to Constable in 1807 that 'You know I am extravantly fond of Gainsborough perhaps foolishly so. It was subsequently owned by the collectors William Esdaile and Alexander Dyce, who bequeathed |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce |
| Object history | Collections-G. Frost and William Esdaile. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) spent the early part of his artistic career in Suffolk, England. This is one of the very few watercolour drawings to survive from this period. Gainsborough sometimes made his drawings and watercolours for publication as engraved prints. He also made them for sale or to present to patrons and collectors. He must have made this watercolour for sale. It is highly finished and around the picture you can still see the double lines he drew as a framing border. |
| Bibliographic reference | DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London : South Kensington Museum, 1874. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | DYCE.676 |
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| Record created | March 9, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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