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Image

Thomas Gainsborough

Coastal Scene with Figures, Ships and Buildings, ca. 1775-1780

Description

Maker

  • Thomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788, English

Title

Coastal Scene with Figures, Ships and Buildings

Year

ca. 1775-1780

Medium

Black and white chalks with stumping on blue laid paper (now faded)

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • chalk

Supports

  • laid paper

Dimensions

24.1 x 31.1 cm (9 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches)

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

21.120

Projects & Publications

Publications

Old Master Drawings from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

From Dürer to Van Gogh

June 5 - October 26, 2008

This drawing exemplifies what Gainsborough sought in landscape, namely brevity and rhythmic flow. He achieved these goals by working over the entire sketch in large, diagonal, parallel lines. Primarily a portrait painter, Gainsborough made hundreds of on-site and imaginative landscape sketches, which he kept for himself or gave as gifts to friends.

Old Master Drawings

September 2 - October 16, 1983

Exhibition of 18th-Century Drawings and Watercolors

April 16 - December 3, 1948

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Coastal Scene with Figures, Ships and Buildings with the accession number of 21.120. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.