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Creator:
Thomas Gainsborough RA, 1727–1788
Title:

Wooded Landscape with Castle

Additional Title(s):

Hilly Landscape with Building

A Wooden Landscape with a Castle Gateway and Distant Mountain

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 appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:9635
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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

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)

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Gainsborough Drawings - International Exhibitions Foundation (Kimbell Art Museum, 1983-12-17 - 1984-02-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Gainsborough Drawings - International Exhibitions Foundation (National Gallery of Art, 1983-09-14 - 1983-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Gainsborough (Tate) (Musée du Louvre, 1981-02-07 - 1981-04-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Gainsborough (Tate) (Tate Britain, 1980-10-07 - 1981-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-09-17 - 1980-11-16) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

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) [YCBA]

John T. Hayes, Gainsborough drawings, International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1983, pp. 196-97, no. 90, NJ18 G16 H392 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy, a passion for British art. [large print labels] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 2, no. 38, N5220 M552 +P381 2007, Mellon Shelf (YCBA) [YCBA]


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