Image

A loosely rendered black and white chalk sketch of a landscape. In it is a cottage surrounded by trees. Figures and cows hide are barely visible within the landscape.
A loosely rendered black and white chalk sketch of a landscape. In it is a cottage surrounded by trees. Figures and cows hide are barely visible within the landscape.
Previous image 1 2 / 2 Next image

Thomas Gainsborough

Wooded Landscape with Cottages, Figures, and Cows

Description

Maker

Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727-1788)

Title

Wooded Landscape with Cottages, Figures, and Cows

Year

ca. 1760-1780

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

chalk, white heightening, stump

Supports

Dimensions

26 x 36.5 cm (10 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Anonymous gift

Object Number

71.153.1

Type

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer
Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum
Mar 12, 2022 – Sep 04, 2022

Label copy

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.

The English Eye
British Painting from the 17th to the 19th Centuries; Contemporary British Art; Old Master British Drawings and Watercolors; British Picture Books for Children; Three Centuries of British Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Costume
Jun 21, 1991 – Sep 01, 1991
Selection II
British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection
Apr 13, 1972 – May 14, 1972

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727-1788)
Wooded Landscape with Cottages, Figures, and Cows, ca. 1760-1780
Black chalk with stumping and white chalk on blue laid paper (faded)
26 x 36.5 cm (10 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches)
Anonymous gift 71.153.1

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.