One of the great geniuses of British painting, Thomas Gainsborough lived most of his life far from bustling London, preferring the solitude of the English countryside. Sent to London at age 13 to become an artist, Gainsborough returned to his native Suffolk and eventually moved to the spa town of Bath where he was an instant success. In Bath, Gainsborough developed his own distinctive style that translated well to the portraits painted for the merchants of the town. In 1774, Gainsborough moved back to London where he became the favorite painter of the royal family.
Gainsborough said that while portraiture was his profession, landscape painting was his pleasure. Wooded Landscape with Woodcutter is an excellent example of the type of landscapes Gainsborough was producing during his first few years in Bath. Dressed in typical peasant clothing, a woodcutter returns home from a day of work, his hatchet under his arm. Gainsborough frequently included peasants in his landscapes, admiring their life that was “unclouded by the world of towns or fashions.” Masses of trees frame the scene where, in the distance, a pair of donkeys and a church spire are lit by the setting sun. The donkeys recur in a number of Gainsborough landscapes and, in the words of the artist, “fill a place or create a little business for the eye to be drawn from the trees in order to return to them with more glee.” Often, Gainsborough designed his landscapes by using small bits of moss, weeds, and pebbles that could be arranged in the studio to create a maquette (model) that was pleasing to him.
Deep russet tones and dramatic chiaroscuro (light and dark) in Gainsborough’s paintings are the result of his habit of painting by candlelight. His interest in the fleeting effects of shadow and texture led Gainsborough to produce works that had an almost unfinished quality on the canvas. Wooded L andscape with Woodcutter is a prime example of the free and rapid brushwork Gainsborough employed in many of his landscapes.
Gainsborough was most influenced by the work of French 17th-century Claude Lorrain (see the Art Card for Landscape with a Rock Arch and River, c. 1628–30) and Dutch 17th-century landscape paintings. Gainsborough admired both their compositions and their motifs, which he incorporated into his own work.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (see Art Card for Mrs. Elisha Mathew, 1777), Gainsborough’s great rival and leader of the Royal Academy of Art, gave much praise and critical acclaim to Gainsborough’s style and approach to painting. Despite this critical acclaim, however, Gainsborough’s landscapes were not extremely popular among collectors, perhaps because his paintings were too original. As a result, Gainsborough gave some of his landscape paintings and nearly all of his drawings to friends and family. Wooded Landscape with Woodcutter was given to his physician, Rice Charlton, who eventually sold it at a Christie’s auction in 1790.
