Thomas Gainsborough
1727-1788
A Boy with a Book and a Spade
1748
7 7/16 x 6 inches (189 x 153 mm)
Graphite with smudging on laid paper; squared for transfer with a numbered grid.
III, 59b
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
Notes
Perhaps Gainsborough's earliest extant figure drawing, this sheet served as a study for the signboard of a village school. Gainsborough painted it when he had just returned to Suffolk from London, where he had received his first artistic training. Minor commissions such as signboards were a primary source of income for a novice like Gainsborough as he tried to establish a career as a portrait painter. -- Exhibition Label, from "Thomas Gainsborough: Experiments in Drawings."
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower right in pen and ink, "TG".
Watermark: Pro Patria, upper fragment.
Watermark: Pro Patria, upper fragment.
Associated names
Robinson, J. C. (John Charles), Sir, 1824-1913, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Bolzoni, Marco S. Thomas Gainsborough : Experiments in Drawings. New York : The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018, p. 40, no. 1, repr.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 59b, repr.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 59b, repr.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
Department