This refined varnished mixed-media drawing was made by Gainsborough in Bath in the early 1770s; an experimental process, these rapidly worked, highly evocative sheets underline Gainsborough’s deeply personal engagement with the processes of landscape drawing. Gainsborough’s varnished drawings also acted as vehicles for his experimentation with both techniques and materials. The method used in this drawing was outlined in a letter which gives a sense of his innovation. We know from contemporaries that these ambiguous drawings, translating the boundaries between drawing and painting, devoid of specific narrative, were highly prized by collectors and keenly discussed as works imbued with feeling. This sheet comes from an exceptional group of fourteen drawings Gainsborough gave to his friend Goodenough Earle of Barton Grange, Somerset. This carefully assembled series of drawings have long been recognised as consisting of Gainsborough’s personal survey of his most refined work as a landscape draughtsman. As such, this concentrated, varnished sheet, belongs to a particularly important and well documented group of Gainsborough’s landscape drawings and is an unusually bold, sophisticated and attractive example.

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