A Sunlit Path through a Wood
1750/59
Medium
Graphite, with brush and gray wash, on cream laid paper, laid down on cream wove paper, edge mounted onto grayish-cream wove paper
Dimensions
15.8 × 19.1 cm (6 1/4 × 7 9/16 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
205851
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This work comes from the body of landscape sketches that Gainsborough made for his own pleasure, sitting by his wife in the evening. Although they were originally not meant to be sold, these fresh and vigorous drawings—hailed by a friend as “effusions of genius”— comprise more than three-quarters of the artist’s output as a draftsman and are now the most coveted of his works on paper.
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...