A drawing by Thomas Gainsborough, dating from 1748 when the artist was only twenty years old, will go under the hammer at Cheffins Fine Art Auctioneers on 24th June.
The 36.5cm x 51cm drawing was made using black and white chalk and depicts a Suffolk coastal landscape with donkeys and pigs and has a presale estimate of £30,000 - £50,000.
It is the earliest of a group of fourteen drawings which were given to Goodenough Earle of Barton Grange near Taunton Somerset, by Thomas Gainsborough with whom he would come to develop a lasting friendship. Gainsborough continued to give exceptional drawings to Earle throughout the rest of his life. The drawings were later sold in 1913 and scattered through public and private collections worldwide. The present picture was then purchased by the current owner’s grandfather in 1944. It has been held in the same Norfolk-based possession since and hasn’t been seen on the open market for 82 years.
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Thomas Gainsborough, Landscape with Donkeys
The attribution and authenticity of this drawing have been confirmed by Hugh Belsey, MBE, art historian and authority on Thomas Gainsborough. Mr Belsey, who has provided the catalogue information for the auction notes, “the drawing was made when Gainsborough was about twenty years old and, even at this early age, it shows the artist’s extraordinary capabilities as a draughtsman. Most drawings from this early date are studies of hedgerows, thickets and individual trees that embedded the forms in Gainsborough’s visual memory, but this sheet is a compositional drawing intended as a work that had a life beyond Gainsborough’s studio. Several drawings in the Royal Collection are drawn on the same French buff-coloured paper and one of them includes a pair of donkeys. None of the drawings in the library at Windsor are as ambitious as the present drawing, however, they all show determination and skill that Gainsborough finally realised in the Earle drawing.”
Patricia Cross, Head of Old Master and 18th and 19th Century European Art at Cheffins says: “This is a significant drawing which provides a remarkable insight into Gainsborough’s extraordinary skill in the early part of his career, a point when many of his studies were concentrated on the fields and woodland around Sudbury. As this is the most ambitious of the early large-scale works of the artist, we expect it to be of interest for private collectors and institutions alike.”
Calvin Winner, Executive Director, Gainsborough's House comments:
“This fine drawing comes to market with just under a year remaining before the celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of Thomas Gainsborough's birth at Gainsborough's House. Gainsborough was a pioneering figure in British landscape art. His great innovation was to depict the landscapes of his native Suffolk, rather than the idealised classical scenes of antiquity that were promoted by the academies of his day.”
Auction: The Fine Sale – 24th June 2026
Location: Cheffins, Clifton House, 1-2 Clifton Road, Cambridge, UK, CB1 7EA
For further information contact the Fine Art Department on 01223 213343, [email protected]