A wooded landscape with a ruined tower, woodcutter, horse and sheep

細節

Gainsborough Dupont (1754-1797)
A wooded landscape with a ruined tower, woodcutter, horse and sheep
oil on canvas
16 x 21¼ in. (40.7 x 54 cm.)

來源

Margaret Gainsborough (daughter of the artist), by whom bequeathed on her death in 1820 to; Mrs. Elizabeth Green.
Sir Thomas Devit, Bt.; Christie's, London, 16 May 1924, lot 81 (260gns. to Eyre).
Miss J.L.R. Blaker; Christie's, London, 5 July 1926, lot 57 (200gns. to Leggatt).
Purchased from Leggatt in July 1926 by H. & M. Fison.
Paul Mellon Collection; Sotheby's, London, 18 November 1981, lot 54 (sold £1,300).

出版

W.T. Whitley, Gainsborough, London, 1915, p. 350.
E.K. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, London, 1958, p. 113, no. 903.
J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, New York, I, p. 193, no. 9, pl. 233.

展覽

Ipswich, Ipswich Corporation Museum, Gainsborough Memorial Exhibition, 7 October - 5 November, 1927, no. 63.
Arts Council Exhibition, Gainsborough, 1949.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

拍品專文

An old label that was originally attached to the frame, bears the following inscription 'Notting Hill Square, Feby 1835. This picture (Landscape with an old castle) is one of the small collection of Pictures reserved by my Uncle, the late Thos. Gainsborough, R.A. and after his Death it was willed with the other family Pictures to me and my sister Mrs. Green of Old Bond Street and, upon a division of the Pictures and [d]rawings, became her property. In the spring of 1834 Mrs Green sent it with other works by Gainsborough to Mr [...] at his rooms - Sophia Lane'.
The somewhat misleading wording of this note doubtless resulted in the picture being considered to be by Thomas Gainsborough in the 1920s Christie's sales. It was also subsequently, erroneously, identifed as depicting Hedingham Castle, Essex. Of the technical composition, Hayes compares the present work to another sketch by Gainsborough Dupont, 'Wooded landscape with Peasant Family and Donkeys, Cow on a Bank, Cottage, Pigs and Sheep' (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, no. 774), which is 'closely related...in the rough handling of the clouds, the treatment of the bushy foliage, with its flickering touches of highlight, and the staccato modelling of the tree-trunks and branches on the right' (op cit, p. 193).