Wooded Landscape with Herdsman Driving Cattle past a Pool
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
About 1781-1782
Oil on glass
Museum no. P.32-1955

Bequeathed through the National Art Collections Fund by Ernest E. Cook 1955
This composition of a pond overhung by trees derives from 17th-century Flemish painters such as Rubens. Here, the herdsman is driving the cattle from the pool where they have just been watered. The backlighting intensifies the reflective character of the pool.