Wooded landscape with figures, sheep, and cottage,

ca. 1785

With its dramatic light and dark contrasts, this drawing conjures up what the painter John Constable called “the depths of twilight” in Gainsborough’s poetic depictions of the English countryside and its inhabitants. During his career as a portraitist, Gainsborough created numerous landscapes, many of which represent imaginary rural settings. These were inspired by a variety of sources, including Dutch and Flemish pastoral scenes and recollections of the Suffolk countryside of his childhood. Although his earliest landscape sketches were made outdoors, by the 1770s Gainsborough was composing his drawings primarily in the studio from tabletop models, using cork or coal for rocks, sand and clay for the middle distance, and mosses and broccoli for bushes and trees.