Provenance
Possibly by descent to Margaret Gainsborough.[1] Probably Augustine Greenland. (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 25-28 January 1804, 4th day, no. 43); bought by Charles Birch. Probably with (William Dermer), who sold it in 1805 to Sir John Leicester, Bt., later 1st baron de Tabley [1762-1827];[2] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 July 1827, no. 27); bought by Smith[3] for Sir George Richard Philips, 1st Bt. [b. 1789], Weston House, Shipston-on-Stour; bequeathed to his eldest daughter, who married Adam, 2nd earl of Camperdown, Gleneagles, Perthshire; by descent to Robert, 3rd earl of Camperdown [1841-1918], Gleneagles; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 21 February 1919, no. 134); (M. Knoedler & Co., London); sold 1920 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; gift by 1937 to his daughter, Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1] _The Farington Diary, \c by Joseph Farington, R.A. [1747-1821]_, James Grieg, ed., 8 vols., London, 1923-1928: 1153 (entry for 8 February 1799).
[2] Douglas Hall, "The Tabley House Papers," _The Walpole Society_, 38 (1962): 70.
[3] Possibly John Smith, the picture dealer of 137 New Bond Street, author of the catalogue raisonné of Dutch pictures.
Accession Number
1970.17.121
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 101.9 x 127.6 cm (40 1/8 x 50 1/4 in.) | framed: 124.5 x 149.9 x 7 cm (49 x 59 x 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas British
Background & Context
Background Story
Gainsborough's seashore paintings belong to his long series of imaginary landscapes, but they have a distinctly different mood from his inland scenes. The vast, empty beach, the sea stretching to an indistinct horizon, and the tiny figures of fishermen provide a sense of scale and solitude that is more dramatic than his pastoral subjects. The sea allowed Gainsborough to explore atmospheric effects that were impossible on land — the reflection of a low sun on wet sand, the transparency of coastal light, the way human figures are reduced to ciphers against the immensity of water and sky.
Cultural Impact
Coastal subjects were relatively rare in 18th-century English art, which favored pastoral and architectural landscape. Gainsborough's seashore paintings anticipate the Romantic sublime of Turner and Friedrich, where human smallness is measured against nature's vastness rather than integrated into a comfortable pastoral scene.
Why It Matters
Seashore with Fishermen is Gainsborough at his most Romantic. The fishermen are dwarfed by the elements, and the painting asks: what is the place of human beings in a world this large and this indifferent?
