DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61291#0046
32
GAINSBOROUGH
Norwich school of open-air painting, and he an-
ticipated to a certain extent the work done by
Crome, Stark, Cotman and their followers. There
is about his work something of the same spirit as
in that of Rousseau or of Diaz. From the first he
was a master of style, taking a broad view of nature,
and there was never anything petty or forced
in what he did. It was reserved to Constable,
who was but twelve years old when Gainsborough
died, to teach the face-to-face-with-nature doc-
trine; but the Suffolk master was his pioneer
in a far truer sense than Wilson: when Gains-
borough returned to Sudbury from London in
1774, to work steadily at landscape, Wilson,
though thirteen years his senior, was still in
Italy studying decadent Italian art; and when
the Niobe was exhibited at the Academy in 1760,
Gainsborough had already produced his finest
landscapes.
In his early landscape work, of which the
Great Cornard Wood, now in the National Gal-
lery, is a very typical example, Gainsborough
is said to have betrayed the influence of certain
Dutch masters, notably of Wynants. He greatly
excelled his predecessor, however, in dignity
of composition, and it was not long before he
finally freed himself from all hampering reference
GAINSBOROUGH
Norwich school of open-air painting, and he an-
ticipated to a certain extent the work done by
Crome, Stark, Cotman and their followers. There
is about his work something of the same spirit as
in that of Rousseau or of Diaz. From the first he
was a master of style, taking a broad view of nature,
and there was never anything petty or forced
in what he did. It was reserved to Constable,
who was but twelve years old when Gainsborough
died, to teach the face-to-face-with-nature doc-
trine; but the Suffolk master was his pioneer
in a far truer sense than Wilson: when Gains-
borough returned to Sudbury from London in
1774, to work steadily at landscape, Wilson,
though thirteen years his senior, was still in
Italy studying decadent Italian art; and when
the Niobe was exhibited at the Academy in 1760,
Gainsborough had already produced his finest
landscapes.
In his early landscape work, of which the
Great Cornard Wood, now in the National Gal-
lery, is a very typical example, Gainsborough
is said to have betrayed the influence of certain
Dutch masters, notably of Wynants. He greatly
excelled his predecessor, however, in dignity
of composition, and it was not long before he
finally freed himself from all hampering reference