A Coastal Landscape

A Coastal Landscape

about 1782-1784
Artist
Thomas Gainsborough, English, 1727-1788
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Accession Number
2019.13
Credit Line
Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust

Thomas Gainsborough, A Coastal Landscape, About 1782–84. Oil paint on canvas; 25 1/8 × 30 1/8 in. (63.8 × 76.5 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2019.13

Dimensions
image height: 25 1/8 in, 63.8175 cm; image width: 30 1/8 in, 76.5175 cm; frame height: 33 in, 83.8200 cm; frame width: 38 in, 96.5200 cm; frame depth: 3 1/2 in, 8.89 cm
Department
European and American Art Before 1900
Collection
European Painting and Sculpture before 1900
This object is currently on view

Thomas Gainsborough was one of England’s most beloved portraitists, but his private passion was painting landscapes. Born in rural Suffolk, in the east of England, he painted pictures, mostly for his own enjoyment, that blended elements seen, both in nature and in works by the old masters, with those invented. In the Berger picture, with its air of calm repose and rural subject, under a sky filled with billowing cumulous clouds, Gainsborough recalls works by seventeenth-century Dutch masters. Its awkward treatment of space and scale—the cows on the headland are too large in relation to the sailboat in the foreground—suggest that he likely created the scene in his studio, as was his practice.

 

Known Provenance
Samuel Rogers (1763–1855), by 1814; Rogers sale, Christie’s, London, April 28, 1856, lot 713; from which acquired by Mr. Holloway; John Dillon, 1857; Dillon sale, Christie’s, London, April 17, 1869, lot 92; from which acquired by Thos. Agnew & Sons, London; John Heugh, 1873; Heugh sale, Christie’s, London, April 24–25, 1874, lot 173; from which acquired by Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, for Kirkman D. Hodgson, M. P.; R. K. Hodgson, by 1885; with Thos. Agnew & Sons, London; Pandelli Ralli; Paula de Koenigsberg, 1945; with Thos. Agnew & Sons, London; from which acquired by a private collector, England, 1952; sale, Christie’s , New York, January 29, 1998, lot 61; from which acquired by William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Johnson Berger, Denver; Berger Collection Educational Trust; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2019. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018

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