South East View of Land-Guard Fort in Suffolk
Thomas Major (1720 - 1799)
Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788)
Coloured engraving
5 August 1754-
About the work
- Location
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Country: UK
City: Northern Ireland
Place: Belfast, Northern Ireland Office, Stormont House
This print depicts Languard Fort, located at the mouth of Harwich harbour, in Suffolk. It stands on a small promontory, jutting out into the joint estuaries of the Rivers Stour and Orwell. In 1753, travel writer Philip Thicknesse (1719-1792) purchased the Lieutenant-Governorship of Landguard Fort. Thicknesse could be said to have ‘discovered’ Thomas Gainsborough in the 1750s, as he was among the first to recognise the talent of the local Suffolk painter. The writer described a meeting with Gainsborough, when he commissioned the original oil painting on which this print is based:
‘… as I wanted a subject to employ Mr. Gainsborough’s pencil in the landscape way, I desired him to come and eat a dinner with me, and to take down in his pocket-book the particulars of the fort, the adjacent hills, and the distant view of Harwich, in order to form a landscape of the yachts passing the garrison under the salute of the guns, of the sixe [sic] of a panel over my chimney-piece; he accordingly came, and in a short time after brought the picture.’
Thicknesse also commissioned engraver Thomas Major to produce this printed version. However, the painting itself was reportedly destroyed by being left against a damp wall.
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About the artist
One of the founders of the 18th-century British landscape school, Thomas Gainsborough was also the creator of the so-called ‘fancy picture’, depicting rustic figures - usually children - posed in rural settings. Born in Suffolk, he studied in London from about 1739 to 1748 under the French painter and engraver Hubert Gravelot and the British painter Francis Hayman at the St Martin’s Lane Academy. Gainsborough returned to Suffolk in 1748, where he worked as a landscape and portrait painter until 1759, before moving to Bath. There he quickly developed into a much sought-after society painter. In 1774, he moved to London where he exhibited his work in his studio. He died in London in 1788.
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Explore
- Subjects
- cart, rest/sleep, topography, landscape C18th, seascape/coastal scene, branch, tree, cow, horse, donkey, sheep, shore, man, woman, coat of arms, path, fortress, sailboat, ship
- Materials & Techniques
- engraving, coloured engraving
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Details
- Title
- South East View of Land-Guard Fort in Suffolk
- Date
- 5 August 1754
- Medium
- Coloured engraving
- Acquisition
- Purchased from Frank T Sabin, October 1963
- GAC number
- 6217