The Descent from the Cross

This incomplete copy of Rubens central panel of the altarpiece in Antwerp Cathedral provides an interesting insight into Gainsborough’s techniques. Gainsborough appears to have used chalk or pencil to mark out the composition before making the final drawing in a thin brown paint. It is thought that Gainsborough’s version was copied from an etching rather than the painting itself as the image is in reverse. John Hayes suggests that the arrangement of the figures in "Descent from the Cross" helped Gainsborough work out the composition for his later work 'The Harvest Wagon'.

Purchased with grants from the National Lottery (Heritage Lottery Fund), funds from the bequest of Miss Dorothy Elmer, the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Art Collections Fund, November 1998