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Landscape with trees (recto)

Maker

(artist)
1727-1788

Title

Date of Production

1746 - 1747

Medium

graphite on laid paper, covered in a pigment or fixative which has turned brown; the verso is also graphite, but is done by a child and definitely not Gainsborough

Dimensions

Height: 11.6 cm
Width: 18.3 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1165

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Provenance

George Frost (1745-1821); William Esdaile, London (1758-1837), L.2617, 1822; his sale, Christie's (London), 19 - 21 March 1838; possibly William Roscoe, Liverpool (1782-1843); Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b; Witt Bequest 1952 In 1977 a Keeper at the Walker Art Gallery sent a letter asking why Roscoe was included in the provenance, and William Bradford replied ‘evidence for William Roscoe’s ownership of it is based on one of Sir Robert Witt’s notes, in which it is queried’. No idea where that note is, and there is no Witt card.

Exhibition History

The Painter's Eye: an exhibition to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., Gainsborough's House, Sudbury, 1977

Gainsborough drawings, London; York City Art Gallery; four other venues, 1960-61

Literature

Bermingham, Ann, Landscape and ideology: the English rustic tradition 1740-1860, London: Thames and Hudson, 1987
Fig. p. 114, fig. 49

Hayes, John, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, London 1970
no. 77
Illus. pl. 9

Gainsborough drawings, London; York City Art Gallery; four other venues, 1960-61
cat. no. 2 ...More

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 21

Woodall, Mary, Gainsborough's Landscape Drawings, London 1939
no. 367 and p. 90 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Verso: left centre, graphite: "9/90/-"; lower left edge, brown ink, cut off at bottom, Esdaile's hand: "1822 WE G Frost's Colln. N103 Gainsborough"; lower right, graphite, Witt number: "1165".

Collector's mark: Recto: lower right corner, written in brown ink: William Esdaile (L.2617). Verso: lower right corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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