Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Wooded Landscape with Cottage, Cowherd, and Cow

Thomas Gainsborough
1727-1788

Wooded Landscape with Cottage, Cowherd, and Cow

ca. 1750
5 7/16 x 7 5/8 inches (139 x 194 mm)
Graphite with smudging on laid paper.
III, 51

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
In a letter sent to the amateur artist and collector Thomas Harvey (1748-1819), Gainsborough remarked: "I feel such a fondness for my first imitations of little Dutch Landskips." The artist was referring to works such as this sheet, in which his fascination with seventeenth-century Dutch landscapists is evident. The hectic handling and brittle strokes of the graphite, as well as its horizontal, small-scale format and subject matter, seem to have been inspired by the works of celebrated northern artists such as Anthonie Waterloo (1609/10-1690) and Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682). -- Exhibition Label, from "Thomas Gainsborough: Experiments in Drawings."
Inscriptions/Markings
Watermark: Circle, fragment.
Associated names
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Bolzoni, Marco S. Thomas Gainsborough : Experiments in Drawings. New York : The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018, p. 48, no. 3, repr.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 51.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department