Cottage Children (The Wood Gatherers)

Well-to-do art collectors of the eighteenth century enjoyed “fancy pictures” such as this, which provided an idealized and sentimental image of poor children. A visitor to Gainsborough’s studio described the three children shown here as “charming little objects [who] cannot be viewed without the sensations of tenderness and pleasure, and an interest for their humble fate.” The model for the pensive boy seated with a bundle of kindling is believed to have been Jack Hill, a local boy whom Gainsborough’s daughter considered adopting.