Wooded Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows
August 1, 1797
Medium
Aquatint with soft-ground etching, printed in gray ink; third state of three
Dimensions
sheet: 10 7/8 x 13 9/16 in. (27.6 x 34.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.105
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This evocative print, *Wooded Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows*, captures a tranquil rural scene figures tending cattle amid dense trees and rolling foliage. Created by Thomas Gainsborough and published by John and Josiah Boydell on August 1, 1797, the work exemplifies the artist’s lifelong fascination with the English countryside. Though Gainsborough is celebrated for his luminous oil paintings, this aquatint with soft-ground etching reveals his compositions reaching new audiences through the reproductive print trade. The medium—printed in subtle gray ink during its third and final state—all...
About the Artist
Thomas Gainsborough|John & Josiah Boydell · 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...