Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-gainsborough-199" aria-label="More by Thomas Gainsborough" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Thomas Gainsborough</a>
Sunset Carthorses Drinking at a Stream
Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
adults
animals: actions
animals: mammals
architecture
bridge
bridges and viaducts
cart
child
children
drinking
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
group
groups
horse
idyll
landscape
man
natural phenomena
nostalgia
people
shadow
society
stream
sunset
times of the day
transport: land
trunk, blasted
universal concepts
valley
water: inland
woman
wooded
<p>Gainsborough was one of the most celebrated 18th-century society portrait painters but he also painted landscapes. This is one of several pictures on the theme of peasants travelling to or from market. These articulate a sense of nostalgia for the old ways of country life, where independent family units were able to support themselves by working the land. Here, a family is shown in a moment of rest after the labours of the day. The painting’s rich colours and swelling forms evoke the example of the 17th-century painter Rubens, giving the scene a feeling of peaceful grandeur.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
21 July 1989 – 31 March 2025
2025-03-31
21 July 1989 – 31 March 2025
2025-03-31
1989-07-21
Gainsborough’s House (Sudbury, UK)
1989-07-21
Long loan to Gainsborough's House
Loan-out
29 June 2002 – 25 August 2002
2002-08-25
29 June 2002 – 25 August 2002
2002-08-25
2002-06-29
Gainsborough’s House (Sudbury, UK)
2002-06-29
Gainsborough Landscapes
Loan-out
11 July 2005 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
11 July 2005 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
2005-07-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-07-11
The British Landscape
Collection based display
8 November 2010 – 5 January 2011
2011-01-05
8 November 2010 – 5 January 2011
2011-01-05
2010-11-08
Sayyid Faisal Bin Ali Museum (Muscat, Sultanate of Oman)
2010-11-08
The Art of Seeing Nature: Masterpieces from Tate Britain
Loan-out
Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream
support: 1435 × 1537 mm
frame: 1777 × 1865 × 161 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999978" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Robert Vernon</a> 1847
<p><i>Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream</i> is one of several <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> by Gainsborough on the theme of peasants going to or from market. The family here are travelling home in a country wagon and are shown in a moment of repose after the labours of the day; the drover on the footbridge halts by a stream to allow the horses to quench their thirst. The landscape is bathed in a warm, golden light and the glowing sunset adds a suitable poetic note to the tranquil scene.

</p><p>Gainsborough's move from his native Suffolk to the fashionable spa town of Bath in 1759 coincided with a change of style in his painting. Whereas the influence of the Dutch manner is apparent in his earlier <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a>, with their close observation of nature and ordered compositions, those painted in Bath, and subsequently in London, became more pastoral and poetic.

</p><p><i>Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream</i> is typical of Gainsborough's Bath period landscapes with its schematic, less <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/representational" title="Glossary definition for 'Representational'"><span>representational</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. The Dutch influence has been replaced by the freer, more dramatic and imaginative style of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), apparent in a broader handling of paint and richer colouring. In addition to the more Flemish approach to landscape, Gainsborough has also borrowed something of the structure and poetry of Claude Lorraine (1600-82), at the time regarded as one of the greatest Old Masters of landscape painting.

</p><p>The artifice or contrived nature of the composition is most apparent in its curving, almost circular design, created by the sweeping arch of the pollarded tree on the right and the downward movement of the wagon and horses towards the stream. This pronounced circular structure gives a 'peephole' effect to the composition, which offers the viewer an intimate glimpse of an enclosed and idyllic world.

</p><p>Gainsborough's change in style, following his move to Bath, was probably a response to the sophisticated tastes of his new patrons there. It was also possibly aided by his seeing works by Claude and Rubens and other Old Masters in some of the nearby art collections, such as those at Wilton and Stourhead. His tendency, once in Bath, to produce nostalgic rural idylls may also have been an escape from the demands of urban life and from his flourishing but wearisome <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> practice. 

</p><p>During this period of Gainsborough's career, he remained fascinated by landscape and made frequent sketching excursions into the surrounding countryside. However, there is something of a duality in Gainsborough's practice as a landscape painter. Although he was an avid sketcher from nature, it is reported that around this time he built model landscapes in his studio, consisting of coal, clay or sand with pieces of mirror for lakes and sprigs of broccoli to represent trees, in order to help him construct his compositions. <br/>These artificial models, created by the dim light of a candle, were used as a basis for his finished paintings - entirely imaginary landscape compositions, such as this. 

</p><p><b>Further Reading</b>:<br/>E.K. Waterhouse, <i>Gainsborough</i>, London 1958, no. 897, reproduced pl.65<br/>John Hayes, <i>The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough</i>, 2 vols, London, 1982, no. 75<br/>Amal Asfour and Paul Williamson, <i>Gainsborough's Vision</i>, Liverpool, 1999, p.163, reproduced in colour pl. 91

</p><p>Diane Perkins<br/>July 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Gainsborough was one of the most celebrated 18th-century society portrait painters but he also painted landscapes. This is one of several pictures on the theme of peasants travelling to or from market. These articulate a sense of nostalgia for the old ways of country life, where independent family units were able to support themselves by working the land. Here, a family is shown in a moment of rest after the labours of the day. The painting’s rich colours and swelling forms evoke the example of the 17th-century painter Rubens, giving the scene a feeling of peaceful grandeur.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-02-23T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults animals: actions animals: mammals architecture bridge bridges and viaducts cart child children drinking emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas group groups horse idyll landscape man natural phenomena nostalgia people shadow society stream sunset times of the day transport: land trunk, blasted universal concepts valley water: inland woman wooded