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This drawing dates from the mid 1780s and shows the experimentations in technique which are typical of Gainsborough’s later drawings. Here he depends upon the texture of the surface of the paper for much of the effect and uses a fairly coarse buff coloured paper. He uses dense hatching and bold lines to suggest the shadows and foliage whilst creating lighter areas with touches of white chalk and stump. Another drawing of this period where Gainsborough uses

chalk and stump on paper in a similar manner is his Wooded Landscape with Horses, Cart and Figures now in the City Art Gallery, Manchester (Hayes, op. cit., 1970, no. 595).

This is one of five Gainsborough drawings once in the possession of the Cavendish family at Holker Hall, Cumbria (Hayes, op. cit., 1970, nos. 606, 627, 635 and 636). John Hayes, in his article on the Holker drawings (Hayes, op. cit., 1964, p. 2) suggests that this work was taken from Chatsworth by Cavendish, the seventh Duke of Devonshire, after the fire at Holker in 1871.