Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727-1788

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Thomas Gainsborough R.A.
A River Scene with a Couple in a Boat by a Tree
pencil on laid paper
18.5 by 15 cm., 7 1/4 by 6 in.

with William Esdaile's collector's mark l.l., inscribed verso in William Esdaile's hand: 1825 WE Bakers sale N 120/Gainsborough, also on reverse Reitlinger's collector's mark

Provenance

George Baker, his sale in these Rooms, 16th June 1825, lot 120;

William Esdaile (Lugt no2617)

Henry S.Reitlinger (Lugt no 2274a), his sale in these Rooms, 27th January 1954, lot 144;

L.G.Duke, his sale in these Rooms, 5th March 1970, lot 80, bt.by the present owner

Literature

John Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1970, p.136, under no.92

Catalogue Note

This drawing relates closely to a number of Gainsborough drawings each of a similar size to the present work, dating from the late 1740s and early 1750s. Each is vertical in composition and includes a figure group underneath trees. The loose treatment of the foliage relates to Three Figures by a Roadside (Hayes no.72, pl.374) and Study for the Portrait of a Girl, possibly Miss Lloyd (Hayes no.7), both in the Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York. The subject matter of figures in a boat or figures by a river was repeated a number of times by Gainsborough in the early 1750's - see River Scene with a Family in a Rowing Boat (Gerald Bronfman, Hayes no.92, pl.246) and Landscape with a Couple Sketching on a River Bank (British Museum, Hayes, no.95, pl.22)