Gainsborough and the Legacy of Landscape: Exhibition Catalogue

The Exhibition Gainsborough and the Legacy of Landscape: Masterpieces from Woburn Abbey, which runs from March 11 to June, is accompanied by this exquisitely produced catalogue. There will be two extra exhibitions in addition to the main exhibition: Striking Editions: Lithographs from 1970 to 2000 and Anna Hennings: Artist in Residence.

“This exhibition explores the origins of Gainsborough’s landscape art through the examples of Dutch and Flemish seventeenth century paintings in the Woburn Abbey collection collected by the Dukes of Bedford in the eighteenth century. It is aided by the inclusion of comparable drawings in Gainsborough’s hand from the collection of Gainsborough’s House. The exhibition also examines the development of English landscape art after Gainsborough as seen in the Woburn Abbey Collection, and in particular the inspirational role played by the 6th Duke of Bedford in supporting and encouraging all forms of art through his own patronage in the first half of the nineteenth century.

The opportunity to explore these subjects and bring together familiar masterpieces with a new lens, is made possible by the temporary closure of Woburn Abbey to enable a generational investment in its fabric and infrastructure and the subsequent redisplay of the collections.”

— Matthew Hirst
Curator, Woburn Abbey