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Cottage Children (The Wood Gatherers)

1787
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 628
Well-to-do art collectors of the eighteenth century enjoyed “fancy pictures” such as this, which provided an idealized and sentimental image of poor children. A visitor to Gainsborough’s studio described the three children shown here as “charming little objects [who] cannot be viewed without the sensations of tenderness and pleasure, and an interest for their humble fate.” The model for the pensive boy seated with a bundle of kindling is believed to have been Jack Hill, a local boy whom Gainsborough’s daughter considered adopting.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Cottage Children (The Wood Gatherers)
  • Artist: Thomas Gainsborough (British, Sudbury 1727–1788 London)
  • Date: 1787
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 58 1/8 x 47 3/8 in. (147.6 x 120.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mary Stillman Harkness, 1950
  • Object Number: 50.145.17
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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Landscape, Thomas Gainsborough British, Soft-ground etching on blue paper with touches of white chalk
Landscape
Thomas Gainsborough
18th–19th century
Wooded Landscape with Riders, Thomas Gainsborough British, Aquatint; second state of two
Wooded Landscape with Riders
Thomas Gainsborough
John & Josiah Boydell
August 1, 1797
Wooded Landscape with Country Cart, Cottage and Figures, Thomas Gainsborough British, Soft-ground etching; first state
Wooded Landscape with Country Cart, Cottage and Figures
Thomas Gainsborough
1784–86
Wooded Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows, Thomas Gainsborough British, Aquatint with soft-ground etching, printed in gray ink; third state of three
Wooded Landscape with Herdsmen and Cows
Thomas Gainsborough
John & Josiah Boydell
August 1, 1797
Wooded Landscape with Cows beside a Pool, Figures and Cottage, Thomas Gainsborough British, Soft-ground etching with aquatint, printed in gray ink
Wooded Landscape with Cows beside a Pool, Figures and Cottage
Thomas Gainsborough
1775–80

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