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

A Coastal Landscape with Figures in Sailing Boats and Rowing Boats, Peasants, Milkmaids and Cattle on the Shore

Details

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.* (1727-1788)
A Coastal Landscape with Figures in Sailing Boats and Rowing Boats, Peasants, Milkmaids and Cattle on the Shore
oil on canvas
25 x 30in. (63.5 x 76.2cm.)

Provenance

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) by 1814; (+) Christie's, London, April 28, 1856ff, (6th day), lot 713 (195gns. to Holloway).
John Dillon, by 1857; (+) Christie's, London, April 17, 1869, lot 92 (720gns. to Agnew's).
John Heugh, Christie's, London, April 24-5, 1874, lot 173 (1,050gns. to Agnew's on behalf of Kirkham D. Hodgson).
R.K. Hodgson, 1885.
with Thos. Agnew, London.
Pandelli Ralli.
with Paula de Koenigsberg, 1945.
with Thos. Agnew, London, from whom purchased by the family of the present owner in 1952.

Literature

Anon. [William Hazlitt], On Gainsborough's Pictures, Champion, July 31, 1814, p. 247.
W. Hazlitt, Criticisms on Art, 1843, p. 194.
G.W. Fulcher, The Life of Thomas Gainsborough RA, 1856, p. 201.
W.M. Conway, The Artistic Developments of Reynolds and Gainsborough, 1886, pp. 92-3.
Arts Council, Thomas Gainsborough, 1953, exhibition catalogue, p. 23.
E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p. 119, no. 957.
C. Musgrave, The Holt, Upham, Connoisseur, June, 1962, p. 75 illustrated.
J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1970, p. 282.
J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1982, I, pp. 164 and 238; II, pp. 509-10, no. 142, illustrated p. 508.

Exhibited

London, British Institution, 1814, no. 71.
London, British Institution, 1850, no. 56.
Manchester, Art Treasures of Great Britain, 1857, no. 150.
Bradford, Mechanic's Institute, Art Treasures and Industrial Exhibition, 1873, no. 339.
London, Royal Academy, 1873, no. 51.
London, Grosvenor Gallery, 1885, no. 180.
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Obras Maestras Coleccin Paula de Koenigsberg, Oct. 1945, no. 78.
London, Thos. Agnew, Fine English Pictures, June-July 1952, no. 6.
Paris, Le Grand Palais, Gainsborough, Feb.-April 1981, no. 70 illustrated.
London, Thos. Agnew, Agnew's 175th Anniversary, June-July, 1992, no. 55 (supplementary catalogue).

Lot Essay

A drawing for the present painting was formerly in the J.P. Heseltine collection (see Hayes, op. cit., 1970, no. 758) but is now untraced. There are only a few slight changes between this sketch and the finished picture: there is an extra rowing boat with two figures rowing included between the figures on the shore and the principal sailing boat. Hayes suggests dating the picture circa 1782/4 relating it to the Coastal Scene with Sailing and Rowing Boats in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Inv. no. 1840/4), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1783 (see J. Hayes, 1982, op. cit., p. 507, no. 141, illustrated). It is possible to conclude that the present picture, which is both spacious and rhythmical, is later than the Coastal Scene with Figures in Sailing Boats, and a Milkmaid and Cows on a Bank, in the collection of the Hon. Colin Tennant, London (ibid., pp. 493-4, no. 130, illustrated), which is somewhat cramped in its composition. Hazlitt (op. cit., 1814) described the present picture as 'remarkable for the elegance of forms and real delicacy of execution'.