Wooded Upland Landscape with Mounted Figures and Cottage c. 18th century

Editor: This is Thomas Gainsborough's "Wooded Upland Landscape with Mounted Figures and Cottage." It's undated, but the drawing utilizes chalk and gray wash. It’s quite small, almost intimate. What strikes me is the way the landscape seems to dwarf the figures. How do you approach a piece like this? Curator: We should examine the labor that produced this image. How did the availability and cost of chalk and paper in 18th-century England affect Gainsborough’s artistic choices? Consider the social context of landscape art at the time; how does it relate to land ownership and the lives of the rural working class? Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. So, you’re suggesting the materials themselves, and their accessibility, shaped the artwork’s meaning? Curator: Precisely. The means of production always influence the final product, and the social standing of the artist. Thinking about those things gives us insight into the world in which Gainsborough was working. Editor: I’ll definitely look at art through that lens from now on.