Wooded Landscape with Cows beside a Pool, Figures and Cottage

Thomas Gainsborough

1775–80 · Soft-ground etching with aquatint, printed in gray ink · Drawings and Prints

Pairs of creatures punctuate the moonlit landscape, arranged as if to illustrate the progress of love: at the left, two cattle nestle together; in the center, a human couple reclines companionably on a log; and at the right, a standing figure leans pensively against a staff, accompanied by a loyal hound. The apparently simple scene-probably made in the later 1770s, given its refined drawing style-was hard-won. Gainsborough completed this soft-ground etching using a variety of techniques: he strengthened lines in the foliage with an engraver's sharp burin; formed the smooth light areas in the sky with aquatint; and preserved the white color of the paper on the cow's back by stopping-out. Yet, despite such virtuoso passages, Gainsborough eschewed technical perfection and simply ignored the defects on his copper printing plate that created the lateral lines resembling creases in the sheet.

Artist

Thomas Gainsborough

Date

1775–80

Medium

Soft-ground etching with aquatint, printed in gray ink

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1937