Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bt., and 1st Baron de Tabley

Tabley John Fleming Leicester, Bt.,1st Baron de
Tabley House

British, 1762 - 1827

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From a rocky shoreline, we look on several light-skinned people working by the sea with a boat and a net in this freely painted, almost square seascape. The scene is framed by a silhouette of low boulders along the lower right corner, and a towering cream-white rock rising two-thirds of the way up the composition to our left. Scrubby, celery-green vegetation grows on the rocky outcropping. Near the center, close to the towering white rocks, three people sit, reaching for something near one end of a boat while a fourth person braces against the rock, presumably to push the boat out to the sea. Closer to us, three people on the shore work with a net. Two stand with the net hooked over their shoulders, and a third person crouches in the water with head down. The people all wear simple shirts and pants in shades of tan, mustard yellow, burnt orange, and pale blue. All but two wear hats. The sea meets the shore with frothy white foam and cresting, low waves. The sea beyond fades from pale sage green to arctic blue along the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. Two sail boats tilt against the wind in the distance. Pale, smoky lavender-purple clouds drift across the ice-blue sky.
Thomas Gainsborough, Seashore with Fishermen, c. 1781/1782, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.121

Seashore with Fishermen

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1781/1782 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.121

A river winds through forest-green trees and vegetation between rolling hills and mountains extending into the deep distance under a pale, orchid-purple sky in this nearly square landscape painting. Loose brushstrokes give this work a soft, hazy look. Closest to us, at the bottom center of the painting, dense foliage is created with touches of sage and pine green against a peanut-brown ground. Small in scale within the landscape, one person on horseback, two people on foot, and perhaps a dog cross an arched bridge spanning a narrow stream to our left of center. To our right of the bridge, a few round forms could be sheep or perhaps more indistinct plants. Nearby, a house is surrounded by tall trees at the base of a cliff that rises precipitously along the right edge of the canvas, and nearly reaches the top. At the center of the composition, the topaz-blue river widens as it winds into the distance beyond the bridge. Forests of dark green trees line the river along a mauve-pink mountain peak to our left. The trees, river, and more mountains become more indistinct farther in the distance. The horizon line comes just over halfway up the composition, and the sky is streaked with pale butter yellow over the mountain to our left, under pale purple clouds or haze above.
Thomas Gainsborough, Mountain Landscape with Bridge, c. 1783/1784, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.107

Mountain Landscape with Bridge

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1783/1784 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.107

Bibliography

1821

  • Young, John. A Catalogue of Pictures by British Artists in the Possession of Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bart. London, 1821.