Though professionally successful as a portraitist, Gainsborough regarded landscape as his personal vocation as an artist.

The lively feeling of light breaking through trees in this picture is characteristic of his work, especially in the 1760s. The motif of the solitary horseman occurs in many of Gainsborough's watercolours and drawings in this period, and acts as a foil to the vigorous treatment of the trees and sky.

Provenance

S.Wollaston; Henry Robertson; Mrs.Griffin.


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