THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH
1727-178 8
143 Study of a Seated Woman*
Study of a Small Girl Seated
onaBank
vBlack and white chalk, stumped, on blue paper (recto);
black chalk (verso); H: 31.8 cm (12% in.); W: 23.8 cm
(9^3 /s in.)
86.GB.Ó2 0
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Mrs. Thomas Gainsborough, London;
by descent to their daughter, Margaret Gainsborough;
by descent to Sophia Lane; by descent to Richard Lane
(sale, Christie's, London, February 25, 1831, lot 100);
Crompton collection; art market, London; Dr. and Mrs.
Francis Springell, Portinscale, Cumberland (sale, Sothe-
by's, London, June 30, 1986, lot 103).
EXHIBITIONS: Drawings by Old Masters, Royal Academy
of Arts, London, August-October 1953, no. 448 (cata-
logue by J. Byam Shaw and K. T. Parker); Loan Exhibi-
tion of Drawings by Old Masters from the Collection of Dr.
and Mrs. Francis Springell, P. and D. Colnaghi and Co.
Ltd., London, and Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon
Tyne, October-December 1959, no. 61 (catalogue by J.
Byam Shaw); Gainsborough Drawings, York City Art
Gallery and other institutions, November 1960-April
1961, no. 65 (catalogue by J. Hayes); Old Master Drawings
from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, Na-
tional Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, July-September
1965, no. 85 (catalogue by K. Andrews); The French Taste
in English Painting during the First Half of the i8th Century,
Kenwood House, London, Summer 1968, no. 76 (cata-
logue by E. Einberg); Thomas Gainsborough, Tate Gal-
lery, London, October I98o-January 1981, no. 20 (cat-
alogue by J. Hayes); Gainsborough 1727-1788, Grand
Palais, Paris, February-April 1981, no. 92 (catalogue by
J. Hayes); Gainsborough Drawings, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C.; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort
Worth; and Yale Center for British Art, New Haven,
1983 , no. 43 (catalogue byj. Hayes and L. Stainton).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas
Gainsborough (New Haven and London, 1971), vols, i,
pp. 43, 44, 97; 118 under no. 31; 118-19, nos. 32, 33; 119
under no. 34; 125 under no. 56; 2, pis. 98, 100.GAINSBOROUGH DREW THIS FIGURE FROM A LIVE
model or from a doll (Hayes 1960-61). The emphasis on
the rich, diaphanous folds of the dress freely and sen-
suously rendered in black and white chalk, as well as the
silhouetting of the form in black chalk, recur in a number
of other studies of female figures which he made during
the middle to later 17605. Unusual for this period, how-
ever, are the small head, exceptionally thin, elongated
proportions, and demure, frontal, seated pose with
crossed legs, which hark back to the figurai style of early
works such as Robert Andrews and His Wife Frances of circa
1748-49 (National Gallery). In the lower portion of the
form, the dual points of relief created by the crossed
knees and protruding left corner of the chair accentuate
the shimmer of light over the expanse of the skirt. The
diagonal shading in the lap following the contour of the
legs, coupled with the integral relationship of the feet to
the raised fold of the skirt from which they emerge, re-
fute Hayes's suggestion that the feet were an afterthought
(1980-81).
This is one of a group of Gainsborough's finest fig-
ure drawings which descended in the family and were en-
graved by the artist's great-nephew, Richard Lane, in
Studies of Figures by Gainsborough (1825). As noted by
Hayes (1971, vol. i, no. 33), the pose of the girl on the
verso recalls the artist's portraits of children of the early
17705, such as Robert and Susannah Charlton (Richmond,
Museum of Fine Arts).3l 8 BRITISH SCHOOL • GAINSBOROUGH