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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
164753
label
A Herdsman with Three Cows by an Upland Pool
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
164753
contentType
drawing
title
A Herdsman with Three Cows by an Upland Pool
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.
date
mid-1780s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79992725
creators
1313
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 21.9 x 31.3 cm (8 5/8 x 12 5/16 in.)
cul
England, 18th century
accession
2006.156
Source extras
tec
watercolor, ink and oil paint heightened with white chalk ("Bristol lead white")
tombstone
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
collection
DR - British
didYouKnow
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.
citations
citation
Fulcher, George. <em>The Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A</em>. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 241
citation
Hayes, John. "The Gainsborough Drawings from Barton Grange: Eight Published for the First Time." <em>Connoisseur</em> 161 (February 1966): 86-93.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 86-93; Reproduced: fig. 14
citation
Hayes, John. <em>The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough</em>. 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
citation
Hayes, John. <em>Thomas Gainsborough</em>. Exh. Cat. London: Tate Gallery, 1980.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 70-71, no. 47
citation
Hayes, John and Lindsay Stainton. <em>Gainsborough Drawings</em>. Exh. Cat. Washington, DC: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 174, no. 79; Reproduced: facing page
citation
Libson, Lowell, Hugh Belsey, and Peter Bower. <em>Thomas Gainsborough: Themes and Variations, the Art of Landscape</em>. Exh. Cat. London: Lowell Libson, 2003.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 13, 18-19, 40-42, no. 5; Reproduced: pp. 18-19, 40-42
citation
Litt, Steven. "Museum Buys Rembrandt and Gainsborough Works." <em>Plain Dealer</em> (December 5, 2006): E1, E4.
page_number
Mentioned: p. E4; Reproduced: p. E1
citation
Lemonedes, Heather. "Quintessentially British." <em>Cleveland Art</em> (July/August 2007).
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 8-11
citation
Belsey, Hugh. "Drawing for Its Own Sake: Five Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough." In <em>British Painting, Watercolours, and Drawings</em>, ed. Lowell Libson. Exh. Cat. London: Lowell Libson, 2011.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 15-19; Reproduced: fig. 5
citation
Lemonedes, Heather. <em>British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 38-41, 145, no. 9a; Reproduced: p. 39
citation
Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd. Recent Acquisitions 2023 : Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd. London: Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd British Art, 2022.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 12
catalogueRaisonne
Hayes 731
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:32:40.547000
sourceId
164753
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
watercolor, ink and oil paint heightened with white chalk ("Bristol lead white")
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
92f08fd128a63c80