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Lot Essay
Dr John Hayes suggested that this drawing can be dated to the mid 1760s when Gainsborough lived and worked in Bath. It is a highly-finished work, with the use of bodycolour to give brightness to the sky and the pond. It is one of the earliest of Gainsborough's depictions of a cottage in a wood, a theme that he was to develop in the 1770s and 1780s in the form of his famous Cottage Door series of pictures. In these the cottage and its occupants assume centre stage. Here the woodland and the pond are the real subject, but the 'portrait' format of the drawing and the dense and structured treatment of the composition provide definite hints of the ambitious paintings that were to follow.
The present drawing belonged to two important Gainsborough collectors. Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833) was the third of four generations of Monros to hold the position of physician to Bridewell and Bethlem hospitals. He was also an enthusiastic amateur artist and collector and organized at his London house an evening 'academy' at which the likes of Turner and Girtin and William Hunt learnt by copying from his large collection of drawings and prints. Drawings by Gainsborough were among those which the younger generation studied and copied. William Esdaile (1758-1837) was a banker and connoisseur with a house on Clapham Common. He purchased a number of Gainsborough drawings at Monro's posthumous sale. Since upright landscape drawings by Gainsborough are relatively rare, the present drawing is identifiable as lot 175 in Monro's sale, 'An upright landscape, with a cottage and trees reflected in the water'. In Esdaile's sale it appears as lot 679, 'A cottage and trees, with water - upright'; on this occasion it sold for £1.9.-, a relatively high price for a single drawing at this date.
The present drawing belonged to two important Gainsborough collectors. Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833) was the third of four generations of Monros to hold the position of physician to Bridewell and Bethlem hospitals. He was also an enthusiastic amateur artist and collector and organized at his London house an evening 'academy' at which the likes of Turner and Girtin and William Hunt learnt by copying from his large collection of drawings and prints. Drawings by Gainsborough were among those which the younger generation studied and copied. William Esdaile (1758-1837) was a banker and connoisseur with a house on Clapham Common. He purchased a number of Gainsborough drawings at Monro's posthumous sale. Since upright landscape drawings by Gainsborough are relatively rare, the present drawing is identifiable as lot 175 in Monro's sale, 'An upright landscape, with a cottage and trees reflected in the water'. In Esdaile's sale it appears as lot 679, 'A cottage and trees, with water - upright'; on this occasion it sold for £1.9.-, a relatively high price for a single drawing at this date.