Early Thomas Gainsborough artwork sold at auction for £39,000
The drawing depicts a Suffolk coastal landscape with donkeys and pigs
An early coastal landscape drawing by the British artist Thomas Gainsborough has sold at auction for £39,000.
The artwork, dating from 1748 when Gainsborough was about 20 years old, went under the hammer at Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge last month.
It has been acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
Gainsborough (1727-88), who was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, had given the artwork to his friend Goodenough Earle, a landowner who inherited the Barton Grange estate near Taunton, Somerset.
The 36.5cm by 51cm drawing, which depicts a Suffolk coastal landscape with donkeys and pigs, was the earliest of a group of 14 drawings given to Earle.
Elenor Ling, senior curator prints and drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “This is a beautifully observed early landscape that captures Gainsborough’s remarkable confidence and ambition while still in his twenties.
“Large works from this formative period are not commonly seen on the market, and this drawing deepens our understanding of how he developed the distinctive approach to landscape that would become one of the defining achievements of British art.
“We are delighted to be able to bring it into the Fitzwilliam’s collection, joining his early paintings already in the collection, where it will be available for everyone to enjoy and for future generations of scholars to study.”
It was offered for sale from a private collection in Norfolk, where it had remained since the seller’s grandfather bought it in 1944.
Patricia Cross, head of Old Master and 18th and 19th century European art at Cheffins, said the drawing had “attracted interest from both institutions and private collectors, reflecting its importance as a rare insight into Gainsborough’s early artistic development”.
“We were delighted that the drawing is now going to be held by the Fitzwilliam Museum,” she said.
“Having come from an East Anglia-based collection, it is wonderful to think that the picture will be staying within the region.”