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Thomas Gainsborough

A Sunlit Path through a Wood

1750/59
Graphite, with brush and gray wash, on cream laid paper, laid down on cream wove paper, edge mounted onto grayish-cream wove paper
15.8 × 19.1 cm (6.2 × 7.5 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This work comes from the body of landscape sketches that Gainsborough made for his own pleasure, sitting by his wife in the evening. Although they were originally not meant to be sold, these fresh and vigorous drawings—hailed by a friend as “effusions of genius”— comprise more than three-quarters of the artist’s output as a draftsman and are now the most coveted of his works on paper.

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