A horseman on a track in a wooded landscape

Details

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788)
A horseman on a track in a wooded landscape
black, brown and white chalks with stump, on tinted paper
17 7/8 x 22 in. (45.5 x 55.8 cm.)

Provenance

with Ernest Hilton, Cambridge.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1964, lot 40 (sold to Leger Galleries).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 11 July 1989, lot 89, where purchased by the present owner.

Literature

J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, London, 1970, p. 169, no. 261.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The present drawing is remarkable for its impact and size. It has composition similarities with the landscape painting Carthorses drinking, in Tate, London. Hayes comments loc.cit.; 'The unusual character of the drawing, its strength and boldness, and its exceptionally large size all suggest that it was intended as a model for engraving'. The drawing is in fact slightly larger than A Peasant family going to market, the magnificent drawing formerly in the collection of Lord Clarke, which was sold in these Rooms, 14 July 1992, lot 83 and measured 16 1/8 x 21 in. There is a version, almost the same size, in which the horseman is lacking his stick, in the collection of C.R. Ruldolf and a smaller version in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

The present drawing would appear to date from the early to mid 1760s.

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