‘Open Landscape with Milkmaid and Cows, Donkeys, Plough Team and Church, Farmhouse and Barn among Trees’ by Thomas Gainsborough, Courtesy of the DCMS
A key landscape painting by one of England's most important painters is set to join Norwich Castle Museum’s permanent collection.
‘Open Landscape with Milkmaid and Cows, Donkeys, Plough Team and Church, Farmhouse and Barn among Trees’ by Thomas Gainsborough has been donated to the museum Acceptance in Lieu Scheme (AIL), administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) on behalf of the government.
The AIL scheme enables items considered to be of historical or artistic importance to be given in place of inheritance tax. These pieces are then presented to museums and galleries across the UK. The acceptance of the Gainsborough landscape satisfied £700,000 of tax liability.
Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture and for the East of England, said of the scheme: “This is helping regional museums like the Castle, grow their collections by rewarding philanthropy and, at the same time, enriching local heritage.”
The oil painting dates to the late 1750s, at the end of Gainsborough’s time in Ipswich. Commissioned by an East Anglian patron and passed down through the family over the generations, the painting is in fine condition and an excellent example of the landscapes of Gainsborough’s early maturity.
