Waterford woman curates exhibition of drawings on display for first time in Ireland

A Waterford-born woman is curating an exhibition of famous drawings at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Just opened on March 5, the exhibition, Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings, is curated by Waterford native Anne Hodge – who is the curator of Prints and Drawings at the Gallery.

25 landscape drawings from the Royal Collection recently attributed to English artist Thomas Gainsborough are on display for the first time in Ireland.

Produced in the late 1740s when Gainsborough was in his early twenties, the drawings offer an intimate glimpse into the early career of this master of portraiture and landscape.

To place the works in context, the exhibition features other paintings and drawings from Gainsborough’s early years, along with works by the Dutch landscape painters who influenced him.

This touring exhibition is a collaboration between Royal Collection Trust; York Museums Trust; the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; and Nottingham Castle.

Additional works have been generously loaned by The National Gallery, London; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and Colchester and Ipswich Museums. 

The youngest son of a cloth merchant, Thomas Gainsborough displayed artistic promise from a young age, and much of his youth was spent producing landscape views of his home county of Suffolk, England.

He later excelled in the more fashionable and lucrative genre of portraiture, becoming official court painter to George III. Although portraiture brought Gainsborough wealth and fame, his preference for landscape remained a constant throughout his life.

He famously wrote in the 1760s: ‘I’m sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my Viol da Gamba and walk off to some sweet Village where I can paint Landskips and enjoy the fag End of Life in quietness and ease.’ Indeed, Gainsborough went on to develop a style of portrait where he integrated his sitter into the landscape. 

Anne Hodge, curator of the exhibition, commented: “The 25 drawings at the heart of this exhibition represent an exciting new addition to Thomas Gainsborough’s known oeuvre. Rediscovered recently within the Royal Collection at Windsor, they give a sense of Gainsborough’s youthful enthusiasm for nature. The chalk drawings have an immediacy that allows us to imagine the young artist, sitting on a sandy bank, quickly sketching the trees and vistas near his home in rural Suffolk. The exhibition provides a rare opportunity for us to see his early drawings beside the famous landscape painting Cornard Wood that they inspired."

The re-discovered Gainsborough drawings were previously believed to be by the painter Sir Edwin Landseer, having been acquired by Queen Victoria from his studio in 1874. In 2013, art historian Lindsay Stainton identified one of the drawings as a study for Gainsborough’s most celebrated landscape painting, Cornard Wood (c.1748), leading to the reattribution of the drawings to Gainsborough.

In this touring exhibition, the study for Cornard Wood hangs alongside the finished painting, newly conserved and loaned by The National Gallery, London, uniting the painting with its preparatory drawing for the first time since they were last together in Gainsborough’s studio. 

Martin Clayton, Head of Prints and Drawings, Royal Collection Trust, added: "We're delighted to be working with the National Gallery of Ireland on this exhibition - the third show in Dublin from the Royal Collection in recent years. These drawings were a remarkable discovery at Windsor and add immeasurably to our understanding of the young artist, when he was exploring both the countryside around him and his own artistic personality. I'm sure that visitors to the exhibition will be as enchanted by these drawings are we were when they came to light."

Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings is on display at the National Gallery of Ireland from March 5, 2022, closing on June 12, 2022. A programme of events will complement the exhibition, see www.nationalgallery.ie 

This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Royal Collection Trust, York Museums Trust, National Gallery of Ireland and Nottingham Castle.

Find out more at www.nationalgallery.ie.