Landscape with a peasant family resting

This recently discovered drawing matches the composition of a number of sheets dating from the late 1740s or early 1750s. In an upright format it shows a country lane lined with trees with a group of peasants, sometimes gathering logs or digging but often just talking or resting. Perhaps the best know drawing in the group is one in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York (III, 52), but there are others in the Museum of New Zealand, Wellington and at least two variants are recorded in private collections; all of them are drawn on sheets of similar size. This particular drawing includes a pollarded tree on the extreme right of the composition and a rickety fence showing that this particular landscape has been managed for many years, a point that is emphasized in the bundle of sticks that the woman is carrying. It shows Gainsborough’s subtle use of pencil to define recession and form, delineating the jagged details of plant forms and the gentle undulations of the landscape. Uniquely in the group, it also uses wash.

This particular sheet is on a Dutch laid paper that bears a Vyrheit watermark which appears on other drawings by Gainsborough dating from early in his career. In this drawing the sheet has been cut so that only half the watermark remains.

We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.