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A river winds through forest-green trees and vegetation between rolling hills and mountains extending into the deep distance under a pale, orchid-purple sky in this nearly square landscape painting. Loose brushstrokes give this work a soft, hazy look. Closest to us, at the bottom center of the painting, dense foliage is created with touches of sage and pine green against a peanut-brown ground. Small in scale within the landscape, one person on horseback, two people on foot, and perhaps a dog cross an arched bridge spanning a narrow stream to our left of center. To our right of the bridge, a few round forms could be sheep or perhaps more indistinct plants. Nearby, a house is surrounded by tall trees at the base of a cliff that rises precipitously along the right edge of the canvas, and nearly reaches the top. At the center of the composition, the topaz-blue river widens as it winds into the distance beyond the bridge. Forests of dark green trees line the river along a mauve-pink mountain peak to our left. The trees, river, and more mountains become more indistinct farther in the distance. The horizon line comes just over halfway up the composition, and the sky is streaked with pale butter yellow over the mountain to our left, under pale purple clouds or haze above.

Thomas Gainsborough

Mountain Landscape with Bridge, c. 1783/1784

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 58

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 113 x 133.4 cm (44 1/2 x 52 1/2 in.)

framed: 146.7 x 167.6 cm (57 3/4 x 66 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.107

Artists / Makers

Thomas Gainsborough (artist) British, 1727 - 1788

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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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. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris), by 1926;[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 loaned the painting to and exhibition in Detroit in 1926.

Associated Names

Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Gainsborough, Thomas, Mrs.
Leicester, John Fleming Bt., and 1st Baron de Tabley Sir
Lindsay, Lady
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon, Edgar, Sir
Wertheimer, Asher

Exhibition History

1926: The Second Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: British Paintings of the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1926, no. 9, repro.

1929: Exposition Rétrospective de Peinture Anglaise (XVIIIe et XIXe siècles), Musée Moderne, Brussels, 1929, no. 66.

1930: Eighteenth Century English Painting, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1930, no. 23.

1931: Landscape Painting, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1931, no. 61, repro.

1931: Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., Cincinnati Art Museum, 1931, no. 22, pl. 42.

1933: Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Chicago World's Fair, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 192, repro.

1980: Thomas Gainsborough, Tate Gallery, London, 1980-1981, no. 148, repro.

1981: Gainsborough, Grand Palais, Paris, 1981, no. 71, repro.

1993: Glorious Nature: British Landscape Painting, 1750-1850, Denver Art Museum, 1993-1994, no. 16, repro.

2002: Thomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788, Tate Britain, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2002-2003, no. 146, repro.

Technical Summary

The medium-fine canvas is plain woven; it has been lined. The ground is dark pinkish brown; although thinly applied it contributes substantially to the overall tonality, especially in areas of the sky and background mountains, where the overlying paint has been applied very thinly. The painting is executed in thin, fluid layers except in the highlights, with fairly short, pronounced brushstrokes. The sky has been extensively repainted except in the clouds, probably due to severe abrasion. The thinly applied natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a considerable degree.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 72, no. 107, as Landscape with a Bridge.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 14, as Landscape with a Bridge.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 122, repro., as Landscape with a Bridge.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 132, color repro., as Landscape with a Bridge.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 144, as Landscape with a Bridge.

1958: Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Gainsborough. London, 1958, no. 1008, pl. 287. Reprint. 1966, color repro.

1960: Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 28, color repro., as Landscape with Bridge.

1962: Hall, Douglas. "The Tabley House Paper." Walpole Society 38 (1962): 70, 114.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 54, as Landscape with a Bridge.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:352, color repro.

1968: Cooke, Hereward Lester. Painting Lessons from the Great Masters. London, 1968: 46, fig. 32; 138, detail repro., color repro. opp.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 14.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 46, repro., as Landscape with Bridge.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 142, repro., as Landscape with Bridge.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 498, color repro.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 93, pl. 81.

1982: Hayes, John. The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough. 2 vols. London and New York, 1982: 1:145, 147, 171, 231, pls. 179, 203; 2: no. 151, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 357, no. 496, color repro., as Landscape with Bridge.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 165, repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 97-99, color repro. 99.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 276, no. 222, color repro.