Wooded Landscape with a Cottage and Shepherd 

Thomas Gainsborough created this oil painting of a Wooded Landscape with a Cottage and Shepherd in England, sometime in the late 18th century. It presents an idealized vision of rural life. This image creates meaning through visual codes that are related to the cultural context in which it was produced. During this period in England, country life was often contrasted with the burgeoning urban centers. It was a time of agricultural change, with enclosure transforming the landscape and displacing rural communities. Gainsborough himself had left his local town of Sudbury to work as an artist in London. This painting is not a realistic depiction of the hardship of rural life. Instead, it romanticizes the countryside, reflecting the longings of an increasingly urban society and perhaps the artist's own feelings about the institutional art world. By studying Gainsborough's work, along with other historical sources, we can learn more about how art both reflects and shapes cultural attitudes.