Additional Images

Provenance:

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, Toronto, (1843-1915), inventory number VH.29, believed to be a copy, that was formerly on the London market (no date) and presumably the one Van Horne bought (no date);
Thence by descent through the family, Toronto

Literature:

Gainsborough’s original canvas “Rocky Wooded Landscape with Rustic Lovers, Drover and Cattle” of circa 1771-1772, referenced in John T. Hayes “The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough: a critical text and catalogue raisonne”; Ithaca NY/London: Cornell University Press, 1982, 447, No. 103 strongly suggests that Van Horne bought a copy of Gainsborough’s original “Rocky Wooded Landscape with Rustic Lovers, Drover and Cattle” Hayes entry mentions, “A copy, of the same size as the original, was formerly on the London market” and presumably, it refers to the painting Van Horne purchased.

See Ian G. Lumsden’s, “Gainsborough in Canada”, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick, published to coincide with the exhibition, 18 October, 1991 to 31 December, 1991 introduction: “To Gather Objects: The Collecting of British paintings in Canada in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”, pgs . 1-4

Exhibited:

Art Museum of Montreal, Montreal in “A Selection from the Collection of Paintings of the Late Sir William Van Horne, K.C.M.G. 1843-1915”, 1933, Cat. No. 109, entitled “Landscape and Cattle”, as “Ascribed to Thomas Gainsborough”, without illustration.

Without being photographed for the exhibition catalogue of 1933, Lumsden comments “without dimensions, provenance or other documentation, it is nearly impossible to trace”

Note:

According to a 1914 insurance appraisal of Van Horne’s art collection,
it comprised some two hundred and thirty Old Master and 19th Century works.