Decision details

This loan request is for a temporary touring exhibition between York Art Gallery, The National Gallery of Ireland and Nottingham Castle, and curated in partnership with the Royal Collections Trust.

The Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings (working title) will focus on the young Gainsborough as a landscape artist and the centrepiece of the exhibition will be 25 recently reattributed Gainsborough drawings from the Royal Collection. Firm attribution to Gainsborough was the focus of press attention in 2017, featuring on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. For the first time these drawings will now be publicly displayed.

The request is to borrow:-

IPSMG: R.1924.81 Pool in the Woods, c. 1750. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). Oil on canvas. Which is currently in store and was last loaned out in 2018 for three months to Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany.

The exhibition dates are:-

York Art Gallery (October 2021 – January 2022)

The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (March – June 2022)

Nottingham Castle (July - September 2022)

Gainsborough’s Pool in the Woods will be displayed in a section devoted to Gainsborough’s response to Dutch landscape, alongside two of the Royal Collection drawings.

To loan the art work to the The Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings (working title) touring exhibition.

Loan to commence: 27th September 2021

Loan ends: 7th October 2022

Reason for decision:

This loan provides an opportunity to foster and build relationships with organisations we may wish to borrow from in the future and displays an item from the Ipswich Borough Council Collection alongside never publicly seen Gainsborough artwork. It is not planned to display this item of the collections in Ipswich during 2021 and 2022, but consideration will be put to displaying it when it returns from loan in October 2022.