A wooded landscape with a herdsman and cows near a cottage, Gainsborough Dupont (1754-1797)

Gainsborough Dupont (1754-1797).

A wooded landscape with a herdsman and cows near a cottage.

Oil on varnished laid paper with traces of pencil.

29.5 x 37 cm; 11 5/8 x 14 ½ inches.

This virtuoso oil sketch is from a larger group of about thirteen done by Gainsborough Dupont, Thomas Gainsborough’s nephew, pupil and studio assistant. It was thought to be by Gainsborough until John Hayes positively identified the hand of Dupont. The unfinished landscape illustrates how the artist painted confidently directly on to paper with oils, sometimes with pencil underdrawing. 

Hayes considers this oil sketch, like the larger group is it part of, as representative of Gainsborough Dupont’s finest work, calling them 'splendidly fluent [and] richly painted' (John Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1982, vol. 1 , p. 231). In his view, this sketch typifies Dupont’s 'latter-day rococo emphasis on decorative picture-making: on surface pattern, rhythmic forms and line, and brilliant, often darting or flickering effects of light' (ibid., p. 191).

Gainsborough Dupont was born in 1754, the third son of Thomas Gainsborough’s sister Sarah. He was apprenticed to Gainsborough in 1772 and worked for him for sixteen years. After his formal training he worked in his uncle’s studio, where he learned to scrape mezzotints and made small copies in oil after his uncle’s portraits. Dupont had the opportunity to develop his own practice after Gainsborough's death in 1788.

Portrait commissions came, notably from George III, who admired his work. Dupont was also a painter of landscapes, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1790 to 1795.

Hayes notes that the dating of Dupont’s landscapes is problematic, but that there does appear to be a progression from a grand, slightly stiff manner, through a poetic, pastoral kind of landscape, linking with Gainsborough’s smaller late works, to a more fluent, vigorous and dramatic style. This sketch fits into his later oeuvre. 

Dimensions

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance