Thomas Gainsborough

This glimpse of a woodland cottage vibrates with the energy of Thomas Gainsborough’s mark-making. Harmoniously combining black and white chalks on toned paper, the artist employed raw directional hatching for the trees, broadly blending the two chalks to produce a vaporous gray tone. Sharp accents of pure white suggest the sun breaking through the leaves. Gainsborough’s idiosyncratic technique creates a surprising balance between the soft focus of the peaceful scene and the electric vitality of his graphic vocabulary.