Art Institute of Chicago

A Sunlit Path through a Wood

Thomas Gainsborough

Date

1750/59

Medium

Graphite, with brush and gray wash, on cream laid paper, laid down on cream wove paper, edge mounted onto grayish-cream wove paper

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This work comes from the body of landscape sketches that Gainsborough made for his own pleasure, sitting by his wife in the evening. Although they were originally not meant to be sold, these fresh and vigorous drawings—hailed by a friend as “effusions of genius”— comprise more than three-quarters of the artist’s output as a draftsman and are now the most coveted of his works on paper.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.