Coastal Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock

Thomas Gainsborough, 1727–1788, British, Coastal Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock, between 1783 and 1784

Creator:: Thomas Gainsborough, 1727–1788
Title:: Coastal Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock
Date:: between 1783 and 1784
Materials & Techniques:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 25 x 30 inches (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1977.14.54
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1977.14.54FR
Subject Terms:: boats | costume | herd | hills | landscape | man | path | sailboat | sea | sheep | shepherd | stump
Access:: Not on view
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:28
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

Late in life, Thomas Gainsborough devoted increasing attention to landscapes, exploring a new departure in the form of seascapes and coastlines. These experiments, coupled with a second visit to Flanders in 1783, helped him develop a late style, an approach to painting that was highly picturesque in brushwork and subtle in coloring. This coastal landscape is characteristic of that style but is also unusual, as he combines a coastline with his more familiar fondness for the pastoral imagery of shepherds and their flocks. The silvery light and ethereal nature of the scenery consciously evoke old master painting and demand that we take the landscapes as serious works of art, something akin to the seriousness of poetry. This example was bought shortly after it was painted by William Hamilton Nisbet, one of the wealthiest landowners in Scotland.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Gainsborough's late landscapes push his own version of the picturesque to its limits. The silvery light and ethereal nature of scenery require the viewer to engage eye, mind, and heart to appreciate fully both the scene represented and the handling of paint. This example is unusual for Gainsborough in that it represents a coastal scene with shipping as well as a shepherd with his flock.

Gallery label for Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11)

Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Ferrara Galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art, 2001-02-25 - 2001-05-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1999-10-22 - 2000-01-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1998-02-08 - 1998-04-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable : paintings of town and country from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 1998, p. 81, pl. 28, ND1354.4 Y25 1998 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 100-101, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Luke Herrmann, The Paul Mellon Collection at Burlington House, Connoisseur, vol. 157, December 1964, p. 218, N1 C75 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p. 55 (v.1), no. 36, pl. 93, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, pp. 11-12 (v.1), no. 34, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Simon Schama, The Yale Centre for British Art, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, , May 20, 1977, p. 619, TLS Historical Archive [ORBIS]

Ellis Waterhouse, Gainsborough, Spring Books, London, 1966, p. 119, pl. 223, NJ18 G16 A12 W28 1966 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 29, N590.2 A82 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 23 (v.1), no. 83, pl. 22, ND466 Y35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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