Thomas GainsboroughBritish, 1727–1788Wooded Landscape with Stream
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Not on view at present
Where is “Wooded Landscape with Stream” now? Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Not on view at present. Checked October 12, 2026.
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Though more in demand for his society portraits, Thomas Gainsborough expressed his passion for landscape subjects in hundreds of drawings executed throughout of his career. Early drawings made en plein air inspired later landscape sketches, such as this one, that combined directly observed natural elements with more idealized compositions found in the 17th-century French paintings admired by Gainsborough. Clusters of short, detached strokes convey the movement of the trees in the background while longer horizontal lines describe the placid surface of the water running through the scene.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 2013.943
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — CC0
In the life of Thomas Gainsborough
The whole life1748
His father dies; back to Sudbury
Gainsborough's father, John, dies in 1748. With no new commissions coming in London, the painter returns to Sudbury, to the house of his childhood.
1752
The move to Ipswich
In 1752 Gainsborough, his wife and their two daughters, Mary (“Molly”) and Margaret (“Peggy”), move to Ipswich. Portrait commissions increase, but his clients are mostly local merchants and squires, and he has to borrow against his wife's annuity of £200, which the Duke of Beaufort had settled on her.
December 1758
A commission for portraits of the Earl of Jersey and his son
In December 1758 Gainsborough receives a commission for portraits of the Earl of Jersey and his son Lord Villiers. The portraits meet with approval and the painter's fame grows.
1759
The move to fashionable Bath
Having made his name as a portraitist in Ipswich, Gainsborough decides to move to the fashionable spa town of Bath, where two of his sisters live. There are so many portrait commissions there that they outstrip what he can handle.
1759–1774
Bath: Van Dyck and Rubens in the houses of the local aristocracy
Of great importance to Gainsborough is his acquaintance with paintings by Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens owned by local aristocrats; he copies some of them. The study of the old masters is linked to the appearance in his landscapes of luminous distances that he had not been able to achieve before.
1761
The Society of Artists exhibitions
From the exhibition of 1761 Gainsborough sends work to the annual exhibitions of the Society of Artists of Great Britain at Spring Gardens in London, of which he was one of the earliest members.
