Physical description
This is catalogue no. 173 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. 173:
There is a rapid and rather summary sketch in black and white chalk on buff paper which is a reverse version of this transparency (Tate Gallery, London; illustrated Hayes fig. 173a). It is likely that the drawing was made from the transparency rather than the other way round. The transparency includes a moonlight effect, which was exceptional in Gainsborough's work, but obviously especially suited to transparency painting. It is notable therefore that the drawing does not include the moonlight effect.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, United Kingdom (painted)
Date
ca. 1786 (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. 173, p. 555
"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, 'Open Landscape with Shepherd, Sheep, Pool and Distant Hills', 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. 555, cat. no. 173
The following is the full text of the entry:
"173 Open Landscape with Shepherd, Sheep, Pool and Distant Hills
Transparency on glass. 11 X 13¼ 27.9 X 33.7
Painted c.1786
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (P.36-1955)
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.
EXHIBITION GG, 1885 (394); 'The Romantic Movement', Arts Council, Tate Gallery, 1959 (166).
BIBLIOGRAPHY George M. Brock-Arnold, Gainsborough, London, 1881, p. 60; Boulton, p. 285; Waterhouse, no. 972, repr. pl. 263; Hayes, Drawings, p. 286.
A rapid, summary sketch in the Tate Gallery (l73a; Hayes, Drawings, no. 776) is in reverse from the transparency, and, as in the case of the previous example (cat. no. 172), the likelihood is, therefore, that the drawing was made from the transparency rather than the other way round. The moonlight effect–exceptional in Gainsborough, but especially suited to transparency painting–is not included in the drawing.
DATING Closely related to cat. nos 169 and 170 in the handling of the bushy foliage, the wiry tree-trunk on the right and the soft, rhythmical treatment of the distant mountains."
Materials
Glass; Oil paint
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Sheep; Shepherd; Moonlight
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
