Old Master and British Works on Paper

Thomas Gainsborough R.A.

A village scene with trees, a house, stables and a church

Lot Closed

February 2, 06:45 PM GMT

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Thomas Gainsborough R.A.

1727 - 1788

A village scene with trees, a house, stables and a church

Black and white chalk on buff-colored laid paper

153 by 212 mm; 6 by 8⅜ in.

Probably the artist's executor's sale, London, Christie's, 11 May 1799, lot 82, 84 or 88,
probably George Hibbert (1757-1837),
by descent to Arthur Henry Holland-Hibbert, 3^rd Viscount Knutsford (1855-1935),
his sale, London, Christie’s, 30 June 1913, either lot 35 (bt Parsons) or 46 (bt Arthur),
Herbert William Underdown (1864-1944),
his sale, London, Sotheby’s, 7 July 1926, lot 113

J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1970, no. 539, pl. 172;
J. Hayes, ‘Gainsborough and the Gaspardesque’, The Burlington Magazine, May 1970, p. 308

Although the present drawing was catalogued and illustrated within John Hayes' seminal catalogue raisonné The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough (published 1970), it last appeared at auction ninety-eight years ago.

Many of Gainsborough's drawings depict 'ideal' landscapes, but this sheet, with its careful observation of light, which filters through the trees and plays on the road and buildings, gives the appearance of being a study taken directly from life.

In 1774 Gainsborough moved from Bath, where he had lived and worked for over fifteen years, to London. Despite his relocation to the capital, he is known to have undertaken at least two summer sketching excursions in the last decade of his life; the first, in 1779, to Bath and possibly further afield in the west country, the second, in circa 1782, to Glastonbury. It may be that this lively drawing was one of the fruits of these tours.

We are grateful to Sue Sloman for her help when cataloguing this lot.