Figure 1: The Woodcutter’s House (or The Woodcutter’s Return)

Oil on canvas, by Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88)

© Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library

Nationality / copyright status: English / out of copyright

Figure 2: The Cottage Door with Children Playing (1778)

Cincinnati Art Museum, Given in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Williams by their children.

Figure 3: The Cottage Door (1780)

Courtesy of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. San Marino, California.

Figure 4: Peasant Smoking at a Cottage Door (1788)

Collection University of California, Los Angeles. Hammer Museum. The James Kennedy Collection.

Figure 5: Diana and Actaeon (c. 1786)

Oil on canvas

158.1 x 188 cm

The Royal Collection © 2010, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Photographs of “Tristram Shandy, The Quilt” courtesy of Joan New