Physical description
This is catalogue no. 177 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 taken from Hayes, cat. no. 177:
"A scene of rustic contentment, with sheep recumbent in front of a cottage with a smoking chimney, and a peasant family looking over towards the two cows which dominated the foreground."
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (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. 177, p. 560
"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, 'A Thatched Cottage and Cattle', Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1786
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. 560, cat. no. 177
The following is the full text of the entry:
"177 Open Landscape with Peasants, Cows, Sheep, Cottages and Pool
Transparency on glass. 11 X 13¼ 27.9 X 33.7
Painted c.1786
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (P.34-1955)
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).
BIBLIOGRAPHY Waterhouse, no. 976, repr. pl. 266; Jonathan Mayne, 'Thomas Gainsborough's Exhibition Box', Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, vol. I, no. 3, July 1965, p. 21, repr. fig. 7 (reversed); British Museum, 1978, p. 17.
Somerset House Gazette, 10 April 1824, ed. Ephraim Hardcastle [W. H. Pyne], London, 1824, vol. 2, p. 8; Waterhouse, no. 975.
A scene of rustic contentment, with sheep recumbent in front of a cottage with a smoking chimney, and a peasant family looking over towards the two cows which dominate the foreground. The relationship of the two cows is identical with that of those in the picture formerly in the Astor collection (cat. no. 158).
DATING Closely related to cat. no. 176 in the pale grey-brown tonality, the softly painted clouds, the handling of the foliage and the solidly modelled cows."
David Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough RA: Pastoral pleasure and the showbox, in The British Art Journal, Volume VIII, No 3, pp. 60-63
This article identifies a drawing by Gainsborough for this transparency (private owner).
Materials
Glass; Oil paint
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Sheep; Cottages; Cattle (animal)
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
