Etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Collection
<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>
Wooded Landscape with Peasant Reading Tombstone Rustic Lovers and Ruined Church
Presented by A.E. Anderson 1910
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: mammals
arch
architecture
church
couple
dog - non-specific
donkey
features
Gothic
gravestone / tomb
graveyard
hill
landscape
leisure and pastimes
man
medieval
objects
people
periods and styles
reading
recreational activities
religious
religious
religious and ceremonial
ruins
sex and relationships
society
standing
townscapes / man-made features
woman
wooded
<p>A 1753 edition of Gray's 'Elegy' (no.48) included an engraving, after Richard Bentley, which shows two people in a graveyard, seen through a ruined Gothic arch, studying a headstone epitaph. This soon became a model for other artists, including Gainsborough, to follow as they responded to the current taste for the solitary and melancholy. 'Night Thoughts' was very much a product of this taste. Young's display of unrestrained imagination vividly demonstrates how the Gothic revival shaped the Romantic sensibility of the later 1700s. The early careers of Romantic artists such as Blake, when he worked as an apprentice in Westminster Abbey in the 1770s, and Turner (no.41) found them among tombs.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper print etching
Wooded Landscape with Peasant Reading Tombstone, Rustic Lovers and Ruined Church
image: 298 × 394 mm
Presented by A.E. Anderson 1910
<p>A 1753 edition of Gray's 'Elegy' (no.48) included an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a>, after Richard Bentley, which shows two people in a graveyard, seen through a ruined Gothic arch, studying a headstone epitaph. This soon became a model for other artists, including Gainsborough, to follow as they responded to the current taste for the solitary and melancholy. 'Night Thoughts' was very much a product of this taste. Young's display of unrestrained imagination vividly demonstrates how the Gothic revival shaped 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/r/romanticism" title="Glossary definition for 'Romanticism'"><span>Romantic</span></a> sensibility of the later 1700s. The early careers of Romantic artists such as Blake, when he worked as an apprentice in Westminster Abbey in the 1770s, and Turner (no.41) found them among tombs.</p>
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2004-09-03T00:00:00
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actions: postures and motions adults animals: mammals arch architecture church couple dog - non-specific donkey features Gothic gravestone / tomb graveyard hill landscape leisure and pastimes man medieval objects people periods and styles reading recreational activities religious religious religious and ceremonial ruins sex and relationships society standing townscapes / man-made features woman wooded