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Date : 1788
Material : Oil on canvas
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European Painting
Painting
Area related
England
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| Description |  |
Dissatisfied with urban life and his work as a society portraitist, Gainsborough wrote, "I am sick of portraits, and wish very much to...walk off to some sweet Village where I can paint landscapes". Here Gainsborough promoted an idealized vision of English rural life. By the late 1700s, the isolated, rustic landscape had largely disappeared from southern England, as formerly open, public land was privatized and developed for farming. This looming forest populated by idle peasants thus represents Gainsborough's nostalgia for a pastoral world he never saw.
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