Landscape with Cattle by a Cottage
late 1770s
Medium
black and white chalk over softground etching on gray prepared laid paper
Dimensions
overall: 20.8 x 27.3 cm (8 3/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift (Partial and Promised) of Mimi and Sanford Feld
Accession Number
2005.143.4
Art Historical Context
Thomas Gainsborough, one of Britain's most celebrated 18th-century artists, captures the serene beauty of the English countryside in *Landscape with Cattle by a Cottage* from the late 1770s. Known for his fluid Rococo landscapes and elegant portraits, Gainsborough drew inspiration from the rolling Suffolk hills of his youth, infusing his works with a poetic sense of light and atmosphere. This intimate drawing depicts a pastoral scene with grazing cattle near a humble cottage, evoking the quiet harmony of rural life during the Georgian era. Rendered in black and white chalk over softground etc...
About the Artist
Thomas Gainsborough · 1727–1788
Thomas Gainsborough was born on 14 May 1727 in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest of nine children to wool dealer John Gainsborough and his wife Mary. Demonstrating prodigious talent from childhood, he sketched landscapes in the local woods and fields, fostering his lifelong passion for the genre. At age thirteen, he moved to London, where he trained under the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Fr...