Physical description
This is catalogue no. 133 in John Hayes "The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough: A Critical Text and Catalogue Raisonne" (1982).
For a General Note on the series of transparencies and the display box, see "History 1", under "Historical Significance".
For Provenance see "History 1", under "Object History Note".
Notes from Hayes, cat. no. 133:
"The effect of light in the pool and the drooping heads of the cows emphasize the poetic, pastoral character of the scene. The dead tree-trunk is used as a compositional stress..."
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (painted)
Date
ca. 1781-1782 (painted)
Artist/maker
Thomas Gainsborough, born 1727 - died 1788 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
transparent oil on glass
Dimensions
Height: 27.9 cm, Width: 33.7 cm
Object history note
Hayes 1982, cat. no. 133, p.497
"Provenance: Purchased from Margaret Gainsborough (1752-1820) by Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833); Monro sale, Christie's, 26 June 1833 ff., 3rd day (28 June), lot 168, bt W. White, who bequeathed it to G.W. Reid; anon. [Buck Reid] sale, Christie's, 29 March 1890, lot 132, bt in; Leopold Hirsch; Hirsch sale, Christie's, 11 May 1934, lot 104, bt Gooden and Fox for Ernest E. Cook; bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum, through the National Art-Collections Fund, 1955."
Historical significance: General Note from Hayes, cat. no. 132, p. 497
Gainsborough was familiar with transparency painting, and had himself painted transparencies for the decoration of Bach and Abel's concert rooms in Hanover Square, London, opened in February 1775; but it seems to have been de Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon, first shown in February 1781, which inspired his own 'peep-show' for displaying his ideas for landscapes. Gainsborough's rather amateurish box [which is also in the V&A, museum number P.44-1955, illustrated in Hayes, pls 171, 172] consisted of a large storage space, containing twelve slats, to house his transparencies; a system of cords and pulleys to hoist the desired transparency into position; four slats behind this position, into anyone of which could be inserted a semi-transparent silk screen; and, at the back, five candle-holders. The spectator viewed the transparencies through a large round peep-hole, fitted with a magnifying lens, in the front of the box. The lens could be adjusted to between 25½ and 34½ inches of the projected transparency, thus producing an image with a magnification of between two-and-a-half and five times the size of the original, according to the length of adjustment. The light transmitted from the candles behind, albeit diffused through the silk screen, produced a luminosity close to that in nature impossible to achieve in oil painting on an opaque support. It is not known whether the transparencies were intended to be viewed with the painted surface facing the candle or the spectator; there is optical evidence to favour the former method, but this matter, and others connected with the box, require further investigation. Gainsborough must have painted numerous transparencies for showing in his box, but only ten survive [two further transparencies in the V&A, P.38-1955 and P.40-1955, were painted by another artist at a later date]. All ten are completely tonal in quality, executed in a range of blues, greens and browns, and Gainsborough's aim was clearly to heighten and dramatize his effects of light.
Descriptive line
Oil painting on glass, 'Wooded Landscape with a Herdsman and Two Cows', Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1781-1782
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
See Sensation and Sensibility. Viewing Gainsborough's cottage door, ed. by A. Bermingham, 2005, pp. 23-24
Hayes, John. The landscape paintings of Thomas Gainsborough: a critical text and catalogue raisonné. London: Sotheby Publications, 1982, vol. 2, p. 497-498, cat. no. 133
The following is the full text of the entry:
"133 Wooded Landscape with Herdsman driving Two Cows towards a Pool
Transparency on glass. 11 X 13¼ 27.9 X 33.7
Painted c.1781-2
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (P.35-1955)
ENGRAVING Mezzotinted by S. W. Reynolds and published by W. B. Cooke, 1 April 1824 (published in Gems of Art, London, 1848, pl. 18).
PROVENANCE Purchased from Margaret Gainsborough (1752-1820) by Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833); Monro sale, Christie's, 26 June 1833 ff., 3rd day (28 June), lot 168, bt W. White, who bequeathed it to G. W. Reid; anon [Buck Reid] sale, Christie's, 29 March 1890, lot 132, bt in; Leopold Hirsch; Hirsch sale, Christie's, 11 May 1934, lot 104, bt Gooden and Fox for Ernest E. Cook; bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum, through the National Art-Collections Fund, 1955.
EXHIBITIONS W. B. Cooke's 'Exhibition of Drawings', 9 Soho Square, London, 1824, p. 14; GG, 1885 (394).
BIBLIOGRAPHY Waterhouse, no. 970, repr. pl. 261; Jonathan Mayne, 'Thomas Gainsborough's Exhibition Box’, Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, vol. I, no. 3, July 1965, repr. fig. 10; Gatt, pp. 10, 37-8, repr. pl. 54 (col.).
Gainsborough was familiar with transparency painting, and had himself painted transparencies for the decoration of Bach and Abel's concert rooms in Hanover Square, London, opened in February 1775; but it seems to have been de Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon, first shown in February 1781, which inspired his own 'peep-show' for displaying his ideas for landscapes (see pp. 140-42). Gainsborough's rather amateurish box (pls 171, 172) consisted of a large storage space, containing twelve slats, to house his transparencies; a system of cords and pulleys to hoist the desired transparency into position; four slats behind this position, into anyone of which could be inserted a semi-transparent silk screen; and, at the back, five candle-holders. The spectator viewed the transparencies through a large round peep-hole, fitted with a magnifying lens, in the front of the box. The lens could be adjusted to between 25½ and 34½ inches of the projected transparency, thus producing an image with a magnification of between two-and-a-half and five times the size of the original, according to the length of adjustment. The light transmitted from the candles behind, albeit diffused through the silk screen, produced a luminosity close to that in nature impossible to achieve in oil painting on an opaque support. It is not known whether the transparencies were intended to be viewed with the painted surface facing the candle or the spectator; there is optical evidence to favour the former method, but this matter, and others connected with the box, require further investigation (the reproductions in the present catalogue are all of the painted surface). (I am grateful to Mr Lionel Lambourne and Mr John Murdoch, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, for their help, and for allowing me to examine the official file.) Gainsborough must have painted numerous transparencies for showing in his box, but only ten survive (this one and cat. nos 133, 134, 139, 140, 154, 155, 172, 173 and 177): all these are completely tonal in quality, executed in a range of blues, greens and browns, and Gainsborough's aim was clearly to heighten and dramatize his effects of light. The effect of light in the pool and the drooping heads of the cows emphasize the poetic, pastoral character of the scene. The dead tree-trunk is used as a compositional stress somewhat similar to the tree Gainsborough had painted in during the course of developing the design for Repose (cat. no. 119). Also mentioned on p. 141.
DATING Identical with cat. no. 132 in the rapid handling of the soft, bushy foliage, the outlining of the tree-trunks, the fluid treatment of the foreground, and the generalized distance. The motif of the cow silhouetted against the pool is similar to cat. no. 135."
Materials
Glass; Oil paint
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Cattle
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
