id: 164753 accession number: 2006.156 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.156 updated: 2022-01-04 17:38:43.032000 A Herdsman with Three Cows by an Upland Pool, mid-1780s. Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727-1788). Watercolor, ink and oil paint heightened with white chalk ("Bristol lead white"); sheet: 21.9 x 31.3 cm (8 5/8 x 12 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2006.156 title: A Herdsman with Three Cows by an Upland Pool title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: mid-1780s creation date earliest: 1780 creation date latest: 1789 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: watercolor, ink and oil paint heightened with white chalk ("Bristol lead white") department: Drawings collection: DR - British type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: Hayes 731 --- CREATORS * Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727-1788) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 21.9 x 31.3 cm (8 5/8 x 12 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2013-02-10T00:00:00 British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Thomas Gainsborough: Themes and Variations, The Art of Landscape. Lowell Libson, London (May 2003).

Gainsborough Drawings. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (October 2 - December 4, 1983); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (December 17, 1983 - February 12, 1984); Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT (February 25 - April 22, 1984).

Thomas Gainsborough. Tate Gallery, London (October 8, 1980 - January 4, 1981). --- PROVENANCE Goodenough Earle, Barton Grange, Somerset, England date: ?-? footnotes: citations: Francis Miller Newton, by descent to Josepha Sophia Newton date: ?-1794 footnotes: citations: Josepha Sophia Newton date: 1848-? footnotes: citations: Francis Wheat Newton date: ?-1913 footnotes: citations: (Agnew's, London) date: 1913-1914 footnotes: citations: (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY) date: 1914 footnotes: citations: George D. Widener [1889-1971], Philadelphia date: ?-? footnotes: citations: Private collection, by descent to private collection, United States date: ?-? footnotes: citations: Private collection, United States date: ?-1989 footnotes: citations: David Lee, UK, by descent to private collection date: after 1989-2005 footnotes: citations: Private collection date: 2005 footnotes: citations: (Lowell Libson, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) date: 2005-2006 footnotes: citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2006- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Following the instruction of the influential painter and writer Jonathan Richardson, Gainsborough often arranged his landscape compositions with the brightest passage—here, the white cow and billowing clouds—near the center. digital description: Although he was one of the most celebrated society portraitists of his day, landscape painting was Thomas Gainsborough’s love and lifelong pleasure. Here, delicate layers of watercolor, ink, oil paint, and chalk result in a jewel-like work on paper. The composition combines the rural scene of a herdsman and three cows with an imagined, majestic mountain view, mingling the pastoral with the sublime. The sheet was among a group of 14 landscape drawings that Gainsborough selected as a gift for a close friend. wall description: Although he was one of the most celebrated society portraitists of his day, landscape painting was Gainsborough’s love and lifelong pleasure. Here, delicate layers of watercolor, ink, oil paint, and chalk result in a jewel-like work on paper. The composition combines the rural scene of a herdsman and three cows with an imagined, majestic mountain view, mingling the pastoral with the sublime. The sheet was among a group of 14 landscape drawings that Gainsborough selected as a gift for a close friend. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Fulcher, George. The Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856. page number: Mentioned: p. 241 url: Hayes, John. "The Gainsborough Drawings from Barton Grange: Eight Published for the First Time." Connoisseur 161 (February 1966): 86-93. page number: Mentioned: pp. 86-93; Reproduced: fig. 14 url: Hayes, John. The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough. New Haven: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 1971. page number: Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 276, no. 731; Reproduced: vol. 2, pl. 214 url: Hayes, John. Thomas Gainsborough. Exh. Cat. London: Tate Gallery, 1980. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 70-71, no. 47 url: Hayes, John and Lindsay Stainton. Gainsborough Drawings. Exh. Cat. Washington, DC: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1983. page number: Mentioned: p. 174, no. 79; Reproduced: facing page url: Libson, Lowell, Hugh Belsey, and Peter Bower. Thomas Gainsborough: Themes and Variations, the Art of Landscape. Exh. Cat. London: Lowell Libson, 2003. page number: Mentioned: pp. 13, 18-19, 40-42, no. 5; Reproduced: pp. 18-19, 40-42 url: Litt, Steven. "Museum Buys Rembrandt and Gainsborough Works." Plain Dealer (December 5, 2006): E1, E4. page number: Mentioned: p. E4; Reproduced: p. E1 url: Lemonedes, Heather. "Quintessentially British." Cleveland Art (July/August 2007). page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 8-11 url: Belsey, Hugh. "Drawing for Its Own Sake: Five Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough." In British Painting, Watercolours, and Drawings, ed. Lowell Libson. Exh. Cat. London: Lowell Libson, 2011. page number: Mentioned: pp. 15-19; Reproduced: fig. 5 url: Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. page number: Mentioned: pp. 38-41, 145, no. 9a; Reproduced: p. 39 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.156/2006.156_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.156/2006.156_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.156/2006.156_full.tif