Thomas Gainsborough, RA

Probably with Agnew’s, London (according to an old label preserved on the backboard);

Guy Bellingham Smith (1865-1945);

James Howard Bliss (1894-1977);

with the Leicester Galleries, London, by 1950;

with Spink and Son, London;

Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (1908-2000), by 1970,

by whom presented to the father of the present owner

London, Leicester Galleries, From Gainsborough to Hitchens, A Selection of Paintings and Drawings from the Howard Bliss Collection, 1950, no. 24 

J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1970, p. 200, no. 391 

This drawing, which has not been seen in public since 1950, sees Gainsborough returning to one of his favoured themes: the countryside, its people, and its ways. Under low and atmospheric lighting conditions, either at the beginning or the end of the day, a shepherd and his dog can be seen gently cajoling a flock of sheep along a rocky path and down into a sheltered woodland hollow. Conceived with a sophisticated combination of media, which he has applied with the utmost freedom and spontaneity, Gainsborough has produced an image that is full of subtly and emotion.

Despite his stratospheric success as portrait painter, it was his work as a landscape artist that gave him particular pleasure and served as a release from the pressures of portraying high society. Regarding his drawings as finished works of art in their own right, they were much admired by his contemporaries. His friend William Jackson (d. 1803) went as far as to declare that ‘if I were to rest his [Gainsborough’s] reputation upon one point, it should be on his drawings. No man ever possessed methods so various in producing effect, and all were excellent.¹ In spite of this, Gainsborough never actually sold a drawing, preferring instead to create these works purely for his own pleasure, and only occasionally presenting them as gifts to friends, favoured patrons and members of his family.

This drawing has belonged to several very eminent collectors. These include: Guy Bellingham Smith, a leading London surgeon who formed important collections of drawings, porcelain and glass; James Howard Bliss, the brother of the composer Sir Arthur Bliss and a cellist in his own right, who not only owned a fine group of drawings by Gainsborough but also patronized contemporary artists such as Ivon Hitchens; and finally, Harry Frederick Oppenheimer, the celebrated South African industrialist and philanthropist, who presented the work to the father of the present owner as a sign of their friendship.

^1.J. Hayes and L. Stainton, Gainsborough Drawings, Washington, 1983, p. 15