Twenty-five landscape drawings by top English painter Thomas Gainsborough will go on public display for the first time at York Art Gallery.
The drawings have been lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection, and were acquired by Queen Victoria in 1874.
The drawings were recently reattributed to Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88) in 2013, when art historian Lindsay Stainton identified one of the drawings as a study for Gainsborough’s most celebrated landscape painting, Cornard Wood (c. 1748).
The touring exhibition Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings will be on display at York Art Gallery from 1 October 2021 to 13 February 2022.
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United for the first time
The study for Cornard Wood will hang alongside the finished painting – newly conserved and loaned by The National Gallery in London.
The painting depicts an area of woodland near Great Cornard, which was close to Gainsborough’s childhood home.
This will be the first time the drawing and painting are united since they were last together in Gainsborough’s studio.
The discovery of the reattributed drawings expands our understanding of Gainsborough as an artist.
The exhibition will also feature other paintings and drawings from Gainsborough’s early years.
Photograph: Danny Lawson / PA wire 
Photograph: Danny Lawson / PA wire
The exhibition will run at York Art Gallery until 13 February 2022.
The gallery is free to enter but booking is essential. Entry to the exhibition costs £10 for adults with concessions available.
For more information and to book your tickets, visit the York Art Gallery website.