Dimensions support: 483 x 622 mm frame: 689 x 816 x 84 mm
Editor: Here we have Thomas Gainsborough's "Landscape with Gipsies," housed at the Tate. It's a very pastoral scene, but something about the figures feels staged. What stands out to you in this piece? Curator: I'm drawn to the materiality. Consider the pigments Gainsborough used – where did they come from? How accessible were they? The labour involved in grinding and mixing them. And the canvas, of course, likely woven with exploited labor. Editor: So, you're thinking about the social context embedded in the materials themselves? Curator: Precisely. It challenges this idyllic depiction by forcing us to consider the means of production, the unseen hands that made this image possible. How does that affect your initial reading now? Editor: It definitely adds another layer of complexity. I see the art differently now that you mention the materials. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. It is all about the materials!
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-landscape-with-gipsies-n05845
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In this unfinished painting, Gainsborough explored for the first time the subject of gypsies or peasants gathered round a camp fire. While the subject of gypsies had precedents in seventeenth-century Dutch, Flemish and Italian art, Gainsborough appears to have been the first British painter to have explored the theme in depth and made it the focus of at least three paintings.
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