Landscape with cattle by a pool thumbnail 1
Landscape with cattle by a pool thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C , Case EE, Shelf 156

Landscape with cattle by a pool

Print
1797 (printed and published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The English artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) is best known as a painter, but he was also a printmaker. In this print he has used the technique of soft ground etching in order to simulate the effect of pencil drawing. The method uses a metal printing plate with a waxy, acid-resistant coating, which is softer than the ground used for an ordinary etching. The printmaker draws with pencil on a sheet of paper laid over this ground. When the paper is peeled back, it picks up the wax where the pencil has been applied. These uneven, pencil-like lines are then bitten into the metal printing plate when it is immersed in acid.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLandscape with cattle by a pool (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Soft-ground etching
Brief description
Soft-groung etching. Thomas Gainsborough. Landscape with cattle by a pool, 1797.
Physical description
Soft-ground etching print on paper
Dimensions
  • Height: 28cm
  • Width: 34.9cm
Credit line
Given by Mr Henry J. Pfungst FSA
Subject depicted
Summary
The English artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) is best known as a painter, but he was also a printmaker. In this print he has used the technique of soft ground etching in order to simulate the effect of pencil drawing. The method uses a metal printing plate with a waxy, acid-resistant coating, which is softer than the ground used for an ordinary etching. The printmaker draws with pencil on a sheet of paper laid over this ground. When the paper is peeled back, it picks up the wax where the pencil has been applied. These uneven, pencil-like lines are then bitten into the metal printing plate when it is immersed in acid.
Collection
Accession number
E.3234-1914

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Record createdJanuary 21, 2003
Record URL
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