Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788)

Study of a rustic figure

细节

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788)
Study of a rustic figure
black chalk and stump, heightened with white chalk, on buff paper
17 x 12 in. (43.3 x 31.3 cm.)

来源

(?) The artist's sale; Christie's London, 11 May 1799, part of Additional lot 1, 6 drawings of woodman (? gns. to Morris).
Thomas Winstanley.
George Fardo.
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 3 March 1970, lot 84 (550 gns.).
Mrs Albert Broccoli.

出版

J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, London, 1970, no. 853.

展览

Bath, Victoria Art Gallery, Works by the Old Bath Artists, Spring, 1903, no. 174.

拍品专文

This drawing is one of a group of large figure drawings of a woodman listed in J. Hayes, op.cit., nos. 849-853, three of which are illustrated as pls. 231-3. Hayes indicates op.cit., no. 853, that the drawing was included in the artist's sale as additional lot 1, but it has not been possible to confirm this.

Like the other drawings in this group, the present drawing is a study from life and one of several studies taken from the same model used for The Woodman (E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London, 1958, no. 806), painted in the summer of 1787. Under Hayes, no. 850, pl. 233, Hayes compares the technique, rough contours in black chalk and rich highlighting, with the studies for The Richmond Water-walk.

The model for The Woodman was 'a poor smith worn out by labour...Mr Gainsborough was struck by his careworn aspect and took him home; he enabled the needy wanderer by his generosity to live - and made him immortal by his art!' (see W.T. Whitley, Thomas Gainsborough, London, 1915, p. 285.)