Mountain Landscape with Bridge
Thomas Gainsborough·c. 1783/1784
Historical Context
Mountain Landscape with Bridge, painted around 1783–1784, is one of Gainsborough’s late imaginary landscapes created in his London studio. The dramatic mountain scenery and rustic bridge were composed from imagination and studio props rather than observed from nature, reflecting Gainsborough’s increasing ambition to create landscapes that transcended topographical record. These late landscapes draw on the tradition of Salvator Rosa and the Picturesque movement while anticipating the Romantic landscapes of the early nineteenth century. Gainsborough considered his landscapes his most important artistic achievement, though his contemporaries valued his portraits far more highly.
Technical Analysis
Dramatic lighting effects create deep shadows and bright highlights that animate the rocky terrain. The bridge provides a solid geometric element within the organic landscape, and the overall composition shows Gainsborough's masterful use of diagonal recession.
Look Closer
- ◆Look at the bridge — the rustic stone crossing that Gainsborough uses as a structural element within the imaginary mountain landscape, the human-built form providing geometrical order within the wild scenery.
- ◆Notice the dramatic lighting — dark shadows in the mountain gorge contrasting with brilliant highlights on the rocky peaks above, Gainsborough using theatrical lighting to animate the imaginary landscape.
- ◆Observe the mountains themselves — created without any actual mountain scenery being available to Gainsborough in his London studio, built from sketches, models, and imagination.
- ◆Find the figures on or near the bridge — small human presences that establish scale and provide the pastoral note within the dramatic Alpine setting.
Provenance
Mrs. Thomas Gainsborough; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 10-11 April 1797, 2nd day, no. 69);[1] Sir John Fleming Leicester [1762-1827], Bt., later 1st baron de Tabley [1762-1827], Tabley House, Cheshire. Lady Lindsay;[2] purchased by (Asher Wertheimer, London). Sir Edgar Vincent, Bt., later 1st viscount D'Abernon [1857-1941], Esher and Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey, by 1912; purchased 1929 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);;[3] purchased 26 April 1937 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The description in the catalogue is printed in M. G. Speilmann, "A Note on Gainsborough and Gainsborough Dupont," _The Walpole Society_ 5 (1917), 97. [2] Possibly Jeanne, Countess of Lindsay [d. 1897], of Kilconquhar House, Fife [Scotland], and Queen's Gate, London, who was married to John Trottner, 10th earl of Lindsay. [3] Duveen Brothers Records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, box 244, reel 99, folder 21.
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