Drover with Calves in a Country Cart

c. 1755

Thomas Gainsborough

Associated Names
Thomas Gainsborough

Artist, British, 1727 - 1788

The image shows a pastoral scene with a low horizon, distant hills, sparse trees, and a wooden cart being drawn by two oxen with a man on top. There are clouds above the horizon and the brushstrokes create texture, capturing details like the cart's wood grain and foliage tufts. The color scheme is monochromatic, suggesting the image is a drawing or print, evoking a serene atmosphere. The ground is textured with rocks along a pathway leading towards the cart and the countryside.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    graphite with gray wash on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Howard Sturges

  • Dimensions

    overall (approximate): 24.1 x 29.2 cm (9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1956.9.25

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Hayes 1970, no. 152

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably a gift of the artist to Goodenough Earle, Barton Grange, Somerset; by descent to Francis Wheat Newton; sold 1913 to (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London); sold that same year to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold 1914 to C.R. Williams. Howard Sturges [d. 1955]; gift 1956 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1987

  • English Drawings and Watercolors, 1630-1850, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1987-1988, no cat.

2002

  • Thomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788, Tate Britain, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2002-2003, no. 10, repro. (shown only in Washington and Boston).

Bibliography

1970

  • Hayes, John. The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough. 2 vols. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970 and 1971:152

1983

  • Hayes/Stainton 1983, 12.

Watermarks

(unidentified)

Wikidata ID

Q64633210

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