R.S. Chattock, The Watering Place, 1880, Etching

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Cattle wade into a still woodland pool in this broad, darkly wooded landscape. Tall, windswept trees crowd in from the … Read more Cattle wade into a still woodland pool in this broad, darkly wooded landscape. Tall, windswept trees crowd in from the left and right, their foliage massed in heavy, rolling shapes, while a gap in the center opens onto a pale evening sky streaked with cloud and a distant hill with a small white cottage. In the water, two cows drink at the center, a light-colored one lowering its muzzle to the surface, while others stand behind with a mounted herdsman, and two smaller animals paddle in the shallows among them. On the bank at left, in the shade of the trees, a rustic family rests: a man stands leaning on a stick while a woman reclines with children at her side. The print reproduces "The Watering Place," Thomas Gainsborough's celebrated pastoral landscape in the National Gallery, London, a painting that shows his love of the Dutch and Flemish landscape tradition and his own feeling for the English countryside. The painter's name is lettered faintly at lower left and the etcher's, "R.S. Chattock," at lower right. Richard Samuel Chattock (1825 to 1906) was an English landscape etcher, and impressions of this plate are held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth. It is an etching, and Chattock translates Gainsborough's loose brushwork into energetic, curling strokes in the foliage and smooth horizontal lines on the water, keeping the strong light and dark of the original. The plate mark frames the image, with clean margins beyond. It would sit beautifully over a sideboard or a fireplace in a traditional living room, framed in a gilt or walnut molding with a wide mat. Condition: Light wear to the bottom right and top left corners. Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Small light flecks in the image, otherwise clean. This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed. See less