Tate Britain | Past Exhibitions

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Wooded Landscape with Country Wagon, Milkmaid and Drover exhibited 1766
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

Wooded Landscape with Country Wagon, Milkmaid and Drover
Gainsborough's exhibited landscapes demonstrated that he was a cosmopolitan artist who had absorbed the lessons of the old masters without resorting to mere imitation. When this landscape was shown at the Society of Artists' exhibition in 1766, visitors would have recognised echoes of admired seventeenth-century artists, such as Rubens and Claude. However, in choosing to include a drover and milkmaid, rather than figures from classical mythology, Gainsborough was emphasising his determination to stick to modern subject matter.

Giovanna Bacelli
Giovanna Bacelli was a famous Italian dancer. She is shown here in the role, and costume, for the ballet Les Amans Surpris (The Lovers Discovered). Bacelli was equally well known as the mistress of the third Duke of Dorset, who commissioned this portrait. Gainsborough had intended to show both this portrait and his portrait of the Duke in the Royal Academy exhibition in 1782. However, he withdrew the Duke's portrait, presumably sensing the impropriety of showing the Duke's mistress facing him across the floor of the Academy's Great Room.

Giovanna Bacelli exhibited 1782
Oil on canvas
Tate

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