Wooded Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows
August 1, 1797
Medium
Aquatint (sugar-lift process), printed in brown ink
Dimensions
plate: 10 7/8 x 13 11/16 in. (27.6 x 34.7 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
49.95.59
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Gainsborough’s “Wooded Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows” captures the tranquil beauty of the English countryside through the delicate medium of aquatint. Created in 1797 by publishers John and Josiah Boydell after Gainsborough’s design, the print employs the sugar-lift process to achieve soft, tonal washes that mimic the artist’s fluid brushwork in oil. Printed in warm brown ink, the scene invites viewers into a shaded woodland where herdsmen and cattle move gently among towering trees, evoking a sense of peaceful harmony with nature. Gainsborough, celebrated for his poetic landscapes,...
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...