Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.305
Gallery Label:
Although best known for his portraits, Thomas Gainsborough’s passion was for landscapes. He once dreamed of retiring to “some sweet Village where I can paint Landskips [sic] and enjoy the fag End of life in quietness and ease.” After moving to Bath in 1759, his landscapes became increasingly idealized, often made from models laid out on tabletops and inspired by the work of the painters Claude Lorrain and Peter Paul Rubens. This twilight scene, painted in Bath shortly before Gainsborough moved to London, draws on the example of both artists to create an idyllic landscape bathed in golden light. The milkmaid and her lover in the foreground seem unhurried and entirely at ease as they flirt at the end of the day, as if they are at one with nature with no need to work—a far cry from the reality of life for eighteenth-century milkmaids and shepherd boys.\n\n Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016