Figures and pack horses on a wooded track

The loose and delicate handling and the economy of line of the present drawing suggest that it dates to the mid 1780s, when Gainsborough was beginning to experiment with a more abstract treatment of landscape. Gainsborough's landscape drawings were deeply personal exercises created largely for his own pleasure and relaxation and as such were not intended for wider public consumption. Indeed many were worked up from his imagination and from models made from lumps of coal for rocky outcrops and twigs and broccoli for trees and carefully lit to create the atmosphere he wanted.