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

An Extensive Landscape with a Plough Team, Donkeys watering at a Stream, a Windmill and a Church and a Figure on a Bank beyond

Details
Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788)
An Extensive Landscape with a Plough Team, Donkeys watering at a Stream, a Windmill and a Church and a Figure on a Bank beyond
oil on canvas
20 x 24¼ in. (50.8 x 61.6 cm.)
Provenance
with Panton Betew, 1782.
Andrew Johnson; Christie's, 5 December 1821, lot 70 (unsold).
Joseph S. Muskett, Intwood Hall, near Norwich, 1829, and by descent until
Colonel J. Unthank; Robinson and Fisher's, 28 May 1897,lot 179, as 'collected by his grandfather of Intwood Hall near Norwich' (purchased by Agnew)
with Agnew from whom purchased by Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson, 1st Bt. Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson, 1st Bt.; Christie's, 6 July 1923, lot 11 (unsold, at 650 gns, the reserve at 1400 gns,) and thence by family descent.
Literature
J. Stacey, A General History of the County of Norfolk, Norwich, 1829, II, p. 803.
G.W. Fulcher, Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., 1856, p. 233. Sir W. Armstrong, Thomas Gainsborough, and his Place in English Art, London, 1898, pp.206 and 208. Sir W. Armstrong, Gainsborough and his Place in English Art, London, 1904, pp. 284 and 290
M. Menpes and J. Greig, Gainsborough, London, 1909, p. 175.
E. Waterhouse, Gainsborough, 1958, p. 110, no. 865, illustrated
A. Scharf, 'The Robinson Collection', Burlington Magazine, C, September 1958, p. 304.
J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1982, I, pp. 88 and 242, II, pp. 379-80, no. 46, illustrated.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1891, no. 45.
London, Royal Academy, The Robinson Collection, 1958, no. 29, illustrated in the souvenir Cape Town, National Gallery of South Africa, The Joseph Robinson Collection, 1959, no. 69.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Sammlung Sir Joseph Robinson 1840-1929, August - September 1962, no. 53, repr. pl. 12.
Engraved
Samuel Middiman, 1 February 1782, as 'The Windmill'.

Lot Essay

This picture, painted circa 1754-1755, when the artist was still in his early twenties, is one of the most successful and celebrated compositions of his Suffolk period. Gainsborough had by this stage developed a personal and yet strongly Rococco landscape idiom based on an elaborate repertory of rustic motifs. His primary concern was to convey the overall atmosphere and character of the Suffolk landscape beyond any topographical accuracy or description of detail. In this landscape, which seems to impart so much of the essence of Suffolk, he certainly came close to his ideal. Many of Gainsborough's favourite motifs from the period appear together in the picture; the plough team and windmill, the church half-hidden by trees, the two donkeys and the lopped tree-trunk. Parallels can be found in other paintings of the same date for example the Suffolk Plough of 1753-1754 (J. Hayes, op.cit., I, no.39) and the Field with Plough Team and Windmill, of circa 1750-1753, (J. Hayes, op.cit, I, no.36). The landscape was evidently popular with his contemporaries and indeed later on as is evident from the large number of copies it inspired of which at least six are known, including one by John Crome which was later in the Nettlefold Collection.

Like several other landscapes of the period it passed into the hands of the Soho dealer Panton Betew (d. 1799) who sold works by Gainsborough, Brooking and Tull among others from his Compton Street Gallery. Subsequently in the late 19th Century it was acquired by Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson, 1st Bt., a South African goldmining magnate who, like several other mining pioneers of his generation, put together a magnificent collection of pictures which he displayed at Dudley House, Park Lane, which he had rented from the Earl of Dudley in 1894.
In 1910 Sir Joseph gave up the lease of Dudley House, and returned to South Africa. His collection went into store and was subsequently entered for sale at Christie's on 6 July 1923. However, on seeing them once more on display the now elderly collector's passion for his collection was rekindled: No longer happy to part with them and yet unable to stop the sale he placed high reserve prices on each picture with the hope that he might 'buy them in' at the sale. Only 11 out of 116 lots were sold and this was one of the many distinguished pictures which were retained.

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