Open Landscape with Herdsman, Cows, and Sheep
Thomas Gainsborough
ca. 1785 · Brown chalk, washed with black ink and touched with white gouache (bodcolor) · Drawings and Prints
With expressive freedom, Gainsborough here uses ink wash and white gouache over chalk lines on buff paper. The artist created this work, with others of the same date, to appeal to collectors of old master drawings. Here the loose technique recalls Marco Ricci (1676–1730), and incorporates effects that Gainsborough developed while experimenting with soft-ground etching in the 1770s.
- Artist
- Thomas Gainsborough
- Date
- ca. 1785
- Medium
- Brown chalk, washed with black ink and touched with white gouache (bodcolor)
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Rogers Fund, 1907
