Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
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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>
Encampment at Sunset
Presented by Frederick John Nettlefold 1947
adults
animals: mammals
campfire
emotions, concepts and ideas
ethnicity
evening
figure
group
groups
gypsy
heating and lighting
horse
idyll
landscape
objects
people
times of the day
universal concepts
wooded
<p>This atmospheric scene by Thomas Gainsborough seems to engage with ideas about the picturesque – an ideal landscape, characterised by its variety and wildness. The figures around the campfire have traditionally been identified as Travellers, a historically marginalised community. Gainsborough likely included them as a feature of the ‘wild’ landscape. Their placement at the edge of the clearing suggests their position on the fringes of 18th century society. For Gainsborough’s contemporaries, their presence may have implied freedom from the metropolitan social order, or a challenge to the status quo.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
10 March 2003 – 12 July 2004
2004-07-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-10
Royal Academy
Collection based display
19 July 2004 – 27 June 2005
2005-06-27
1 March 2004
2004-03-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-07-19
Sensibility
Collection based display
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
21 January 2012 – 3 June 2012
2012-06-03
21 January 2012 – 3 June 2012
2012-06-03
2012-01-21
Castel Sismondo (Rimini, Italy)
2012-01-21
Da Vermeer a Kindinsky. Capolavori dai museei del mondo a Rimini
Loan-out
30 November 2012 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
1 December 2012
2012-12-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-30
Gallery 14
Collection based display
26 September 2022
26 September 2022
2022-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 14
Collection based display
Encampment at Sunset
support: 1206 × 1505 mm
frame: 1480 × 1765 × 113 mm
Presented by Frederick John Nettlefold 1947
<p>In this late <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>landscape</span></a> Gainsborough returns to a theme he had first adopted in the mid-1750s, that of gypsies or peasants gathered round a camp fire. While the subject of gypsies had precedents in seventeenth-century European art, Gainsborough appears to have been the first British painter to have explored the theme in depth and made it the central focus of at least three <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>.
<br/>
<br/>His first attempt was the unfinished <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, <i>Landscape with Gypsies</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-landscape-with-gipsies-n05845" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05845</span></a>), believed to date from around 1753-4 and to have been commissioned by a gentleman in Ipswich. Gainsborough apparently slashed the canvas in a temper when the client claimed he did not like it. The tree and group of gypsies are centrally placed in that early horizontal <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>, but Gainsborough’s next experiment on the theme, <i>The Gypsies</i>, c.1758, was a vertical arrangement, with a more dominant oak tree and complex grouping of figures. This painting, the present whereabouts of which are unknown, was used as the basis for Gainsborough’s famous <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/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> of <i>The Gypsies. </i>This was the first print to be published commercially after one of Gainsborough’s paintings and indicates the significance the subject must have held for him. (For further information regarding the print, see the short text for Gainsborough <span>N05845</span>).
<br/>
<br/>The present painting of a gypsy encampment seen in twilight, from late in Gainsborough’s career, is clearly derived from his earlier explorations of the theme. It is perhaps surprising that there was such a long gap before his return to a subject that had clearly held a fascination for him in the 1750s. However, this later composition is quite different in its arrangement from the earlier ones. The group of gypsies gathered around the camp fire under dark trees is far less prominent and the overall focus of the scene is on the rich colouring and atmospheric light, rather than on the activities on the figures.
<br/>
<br/>The gypsy group consists of far more people than previously, although they are similarly shown in a state of repose, smoking pipes and gathered around their homely cooking pot. The artist's fascination with dramatic lighting effects is apparent in his skilful treatment of the smoking fire which casts a rich red glow on the surrounding figures. The heavily laden donkey beside them is a motif borrowed from the earlier unfinished painting. A zig-zagging path separates the larger mass of woodland from a smaller balancing group of trees on the right, leading the eye to the distant church tower on the horizon, imbued with silvery evening light.
<br/>
<br/>A sketch for this composition, in chalks on blue <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/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA), is close to the final design. Gainsborough’s main alterations from the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> were to enlarge the main figure group, which became less integrated with the dominant tree and to elaborate the foreground reeds and log. However, there are still signs in the finished oil that the composition was not entirely satisfactorily resolved, particularly the relationship between the scale of the two trees on the right.
<br/>
<br/>The early <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/provenance" title="Glossary definition for 'Provenance'"><span>provenance</span></a> of the painting is not certain, but if this was the picture sold in 1808, as is generally thought, it had a companion, ‘Cattle watering in a Woody Landscape with Figures – a charming Pastoral’, from which it was later separated. This seems possible, since pure landscape compositions of this kind often went in pairs, one representing the bright light of morning, the other the darker, richer tonality of the evening.
<br/>
<br/><b>Further Reading</b></p>
<p>Ellis Waterhouse, <i>Gainsborough,</i> 1958, no. 936, repr. pl. 132
<br/>John Hayes, <i>The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough</i>, 1970, pp. 209-10
<br/>John Hayes, <i>The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough</i>, 2 vols, 1982, p.477, no. 122, reproduced
<br/>Susan Sloman, <i>Gainsborough in Bath</i>, 2002, pp.193-196, repr. fig 169
<br/>
<br/>Diane Perkins 
<br/>October 2003</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This atmospheric scene by Thomas Gainsborough seems to engage with ideas about the picturesque – an ideal landscape, characterised by its variety and wildness. The figures around the campfire have traditionally been identified as Travellers, a historically marginalised community. Gainsborough likely included them as a feature of the ‘wild’ landscape. Their placement at the edge of the clearing suggests their position on the fringes of 18th century society. For Gainsborough’s contemporaries, their presence may have implied freedom from the metropolitan social order, or a challenge to the status quo.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-30T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
adults animals: mammals campfire emotions, concepts and ideas ethnicity evening figure group groups gypsy heating and lighting horse idyll landscape objects people times of the day universal concepts wooded