Cottage Children (The Wood Gatherers)

Paintings presenting peasant children in rustic settings were quite popular in the eighteenth century. These were also referred to as "fancy pictures" and were inspired by the Spanish artist Murillo. Perhaps distracted by the painting’s masterful execution, Gainsborough's contemporaries’ general sentiment was pleasant, seemingly unaware of the sitters' hollow-eyed, wistful expressions as an undercurrent of deprivation. In 1814, one critic referred to them as the works "on which Gainsborough's fame chiefly rests."