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Notes
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Gainsborough’s landscape simultaneously presents both an idealised depiction of rural life and the stark reality of the hardship facing the rural working classes in the 18th century. On the left, he captures an idyllic rural image – a woman carrying a bundle of kindling home to a quaint thatched cottage bathed in sunlight, as sheep graze on the luscious grass of the unfenced common land. In contrast, on the right, a destitute woman and child crouch begging on the roadside as weary figures travelling to or from market ride past – all masked under a murky shadow cast across the foreground. The painting was completed in Bath during the height of Gainsborough’s career, shortly after his election as a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768.
Gainsborough is known to have greatly admired the work of 17th-century masters, such as Rubens (1577–1640), Cuyp (1620–1691) and Claude (c.1604–1682), whose landscapes frequently included figures travelling across the countryside on horseback, bathed in soft golden sunsets. He would have seen such works first-hand in the country house collections of his patrons whilst working in and around Bath.
Title
Going to Market
Date
c.1768–1771
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 119.4 x W 146.1 cm
Accession number
88028782
Acquisition method
Iveagh Bequest, 1929
Work type
Painting