Landscape with Figures under a Tree

This small landscape owes a clear debt to the etchings of the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Anthonie Waterloo. Like scenes by Waterloo, they feature dense woodland canopies, winding paths, the odd neatly positioned rural figure to focus the viewer’s eye, and the glimpse of a distant, hilly horizon. Gainsborough owned etchings by Waterloo and studied them closely. The market for seventeenth-century Dutch painting in mid-eighteenth century London meant that he was able to sell small imitations such as this to dealers, although he struggled to make a living from them.

N01486 Tate. Presented by the family of Richard J. Lane 1896