Dimensions support: 584 x 762 mm frame: 815 x 994 x 115 mm
Editor: This is "Boy Driving Cows near a Pool" by Thomas Gainsborough. It's a calming landscape, but I wonder, why depict such a simple scene? What’s so interesting about a boy with cows? Curator: These pastoral scenes were quite popular in the 18th century. They weren’t simply about the boy and the cows, but more about idealizing rural life, a romanticized vision far removed from the realities of agricultural labor. Editor: So, it's less about the actual work and more about… a fantasy? Curator: Precisely. Gainsborough was catering to a specific audience, the wealthy elite, who found comfort in these images of a peaceful, untroubled countryside. Editor: That adds a whole new layer! I never would have thought of that. Curator: Context is key. Art serves social functions.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-boy-driving-cows-near-a-pool-n00309
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Gainsborough received very few commissions for landscape paintings; all those he exhibited were speculative works. The quiet solitude of this painting, with a drover leading a herd of cattle to water, is typical of Gainsborough's later landscapes. His own association of landscape painting with pastoral ease and tranquillity seemed to increase in his final years; he claimed: 'I'm sick of portraits and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba [cello] and walk off to some sweet Village where I can paint landskips and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease'. Gallery label, September 2004
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