Thomas Gainsborough RA, 1727–1788, British, Wooded Landscape with Castle, between 1785 and 1788
- Title:
- Wooded Landscape with Castle
- Date:
- between 1785 and 1788
- Medium:
- Black chalk and stumping with white chalk on medium, slightly textured, light blue laid paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 10 3/8 x 12 7/8 inches (26.4 x 32.7 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1975.4.1520
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- castle | glare | hills | landscape | mountain | trees
- Access:
- Accessible by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: As a COVID-19 precaution, the Study Room is closed until further notice. - Curatorial Comment:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>This drawing dates from the last years of Gainsborough's life when, owing to continued skirmishes with the Hanging Committee, he refused to exhibit his works at the Royal Academy. His paintings and drawings (as well as the innovative oil paintings on glass that the artist was creating during this period) became more generalized than before; examples such as the present drawing sometimes come closer to suggesting rather than truly representing forms, and they are often set in an imaginary world of picturesque castles and winding roads. In some areas of this drawing the black and white chalk has been blended and softened with the artist's fingertips, or perhaps with a coil of felt or leather known as a stump. The only color in the composition is the blue paper support, which has faded to gray in the sky, making the mass of white clouds above the distant mountain stand out more brightly. This use of blue paper harkens back to the earliest days of Gainsborough's career, when he adopted this habit from his first teacher, the French draftsman Gravelot.--Cassandra Albinson,2007-01
- Exhibition History:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>
The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-09-17 - 1980-11-16)
Thomas Gainsborough (Tate) (Tate Britain, 1980-10-07 - 1981-01-04)
Thomas Gainsborough (Tate) (Musée du Louvre, 1981-02-07 - 1981-04-26)
- Publications:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>
John Baskett, Paul Mellon's legacy, a passion for British art : masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 258, no. 38, pl. 38, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
John T. Hayes, Gainsborough drawings, International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1983, pp. 196-97, no. 90, NJ18 G16 H392 (YCBA)
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:9635
- Export:
- XML | RDF
If you have information about this object that may be of assistance please contact us.