Not on display
- Artist
- Thomas Gainsborough 1727–1788
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 584 x 762 mm
frame: 815 x 994 x 115 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
- Reference
- N00309
Display caption
Gainsborough received very few commissions for landscape paintings; all those he exhibited were speculative works. The quiet solitude of this painting, with a drover leading a herd of cattle to water, is typical of Gainsborough's later landscapes. His own association of landscape painting with pastoral ease and tranquillity seemed to increase in his final years; he claimed: 'I'm sick of portraits and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba [cello] and walk off to some sweet Village where I can paint landskips and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease'.
Gallery label, September 2004
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