Wooded Landscape with Cows at a Watering Place c. 1785

Thomas Gainsborough created this landscape drawing with brown wash and graphite, reflecting the pastoral ideal popular in 18th-century Britain. Gainsborough, who achieved fame as a portraitist, often expressed a greater passion for landscape. Yet, these scenes were far from simple depictions of rural life. They were imbued with notions of land ownership and social hierarchy. The presence of grazing cows quietly alludes to agricultural wealth, while the distant figures suggest a harmonious, yet idealized, social order. The emotional undercurrent of such scenes lies in their nostalgic longing for an imagined rural past. Gainsborough himself once said, “I’m sick of portraits and wish to take my Viol da Gamba and walk off to some sweet village where I can paint Landskips”. This sentiment reveals a desire to escape the confines of his social role as a sought-after portrait painter. In his landscapes, Gainsborough could explore a sense of freedom. He expressed personal desires, while also commenting on the changing social and economic landscape of his time.