Rocky Wooded Landscape with Rustic Lovers by a Pool
Thomas Gainsborough RA (Sudbury 1727 - London 1788)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1774 - 1777
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1200 x 1450 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486175
Caption
Famous for his portrait and landscape paintings, Gainsborough was noted for the speed with which he applied his paint, and he worked more from his observations of nature (and of human nature) than from any application of formal academic rules. The poetic sensibility of his paintings caused Constable to say, ‘on looking at them, we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them.’ This work was painted around 1774-7, and was subsequently acquired by the 3rd Earl of Egremont.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Rocky Wooded Landscape with Rustic Lovers by a Pool, by Thomas Gainsborough RA (Sudbury 1727 - London 1788) circa 1774/77. A landscape with a shepherd and shepherdess seated by a pool at left centre foreground, with a dog behind them. Beyond, right, are three cows under a rocky bank, crested with trees. A line of trees can be seen at left with square towers in the centre mid-distance. A plain and distant hills are at centre and the sky is golden and green-blue.
Provenance
Bought by George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837), possibly from the art dealer Michael Peacock (PHA 11014, bill from Matthew Peacock to the Earl of Egremont for purchase of a Gainsborough landscape, 1829). Possibly purchased by Peacock from the sale of John Proby, Earl of Carysfort (Christie's, lot 62, Jun 14 1828) for £120.15 'romantic scene with a group of three Cows, and Pastoral Figures reposing in the front ground'. In the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont by 1835. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Makers and roles
Thomas Gainsborough RA (Sudbury 1727 - London 1788), artist