A Woman and Three Children

A study for one of Gainsborough's so-called fancy pictures, this sketch offers evidence of the artist's late technique and documents his tendency to reduce figures to geometrical components of nearly abstract quality. Although executed quickly, the drawing reveals Gainsborough's virtuosity in experimenting with different media. Harmoniously combining black and white chalk, applied both dry and wet, the artist varied tones by changing the pressure of the medium on the paper and by rubbing and smudging the chalks, a technique he also employed in his late black-and-white landscapes. -- Exhibition Label, from "Thomas Gainsborough: Experiments in Drawings."