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Government scheme returns Gainsborough landscape to Norwich

059/09
21 April 2009

A major landscape painting by one of England’s most important painters is to become part of Norwich Castle Museum’s permanent collection, Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture and for the East of England, announced today.

Thomas Gainsborough’s landscape, ‘Open Landscape with Milkmaid and Cows, Donkeys, Plough Team and Church, Farmhouse and Barn among Trees’, has been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax as part of the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme (AIL) which is administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) on behalf of the government.

Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture and for the East of England said:

“I am very pleased to present this beautiful painting by Gainsborough to the Castle Museum. I am glad that the people of today, and those of the future, will be able to enjoy it thanks to the Government’s innovative tax scheme.  This is helping regional museums like the Castle, grow their collections by rewarding philanthropy and, at the same time, enriching local heritage.”

The AIL scheme enables items deemed to be of historical or artistic importance to be given in place of inheritance tax, with items then given to museums and galleries throughout the UK.  The acceptance of the Gainsborough painting satisfied £700,000 of tax liability. 
 
The painting has been permanently allocated to the Castle Museum, Norwich, in accordance with the condition attached to the offer. 
 
This landscape oil painting dates to the late 1750s, at the end of the artist’s time in Ipswich.  It was commissioned by an East Anglian patron and has passed down through the family over the generations. 
 
Notes to Editors

  1. The MLA is government's agency for museums, libraries and archives. Leading strategically, we promote best practice to inspire innovative, integrated and sustainable services for all. More information can be found by visiting the MLA website.

  2. This is the eleventh time that the Castle Museum, Norwich has benefited as a result of the AIL scheme.  One of the city's most famous landmarks, Norwich Castle was built by the Normans as a Royal Palace 900 years ago.  Now a museum and art gallery, it is home to some of the most outstanding collections of fine art, archaeology and natural history.  More information can be found by visiting the Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service website.

  3. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was born in Sudbury in Suffolk, and trained in London returned to Suffolk and settling back in Sudbury in 1749 where he was able to win commissions from the local gentry.  In 1752 he took a house in Ipswich where the opportunities to pursue his artistic career were greater and where he honed his skills in portraiture.

  4. This painting, ‘Open Landscape with milkmaid and Cows, Donkeys, Plough Team and Church, Farmhouse and Barn among Trees’, is an oil painting on canvas, 92.8 by 123 cm.  It dates to the late 1750s at the end of the artist’s time in Ipswich and immediately before his departure for the fashionable spa-town of Bath.  It is a very fine example of the landscapes of Gainsborough’s early maturity and is in particularly fine condition. It is filled with the elements of the East Anglian landscape in which Gainsborough grew up: ancient oaks winding river, undulating field, windmill and medieval church.  It was commissioned by an East Anglian patron and has passed down through the family during the subsequent 250 years.

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