Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727 - 1788

Harry Sutton Palmer Executors's sale, Christie's, 11th December 1933, lot 184

The present drawing belongs to a group of landscapes dating from the mid 1780's  (see John Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1970, pp.270-272, nos.708-713, 715). These drawings are created with the simplest of washes, either in brown or grey and sometimes with the addition of white bodycolour over an underdrawing in what has been described as 'an oily black chalk' (see John Hayes and Lindsay Stainton, Gainsborough Drawings, 1983, p.166).  

It was originally thought that the black underdrawing was an offset outline and produced 'by transference' (see Laurence Binyon, British Drawings in the British Museum, 1900, vol.II., p.176). However, if it had been offset the hatching would appear in the opposite direction. Furthermore, microscopic examination of one of the sheets, has shown that this is not the case and that the direction of the hatched underdrawing is typical of a right-handed draughtsman such as Gainsborough. Finally, the purpose of creating an offset outline would be to produce a number of versions of each drawing and yet there are not known to be any other versions of the works in this group.

Such unusual underdrawing possibly demonstrates Gainsborough's desire to expand the range of techniques available to him at this time (see J. Hayes and L. Stainton, op cit, p.168). Specifically designed for sale or presentation, each have decorative gold tooled borders made by a bookbinders 'rouleau' and stamped with Gainsborough's  initials or his name.