A landscape with buildings and a tower seen over water

Details

John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837)
A landscape with buildings and a tower seen over water
indistinctly dated '5th Oct. 1820.' (upper left)
pencil
3½ x 4½ in. (8.9 x 11 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 18 November 1971, lot 50.
with William Darby, 1972.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 11 July 1989, lot 120.

Literature

G. Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1984, p. 61, no. 20.75, pl. 191.

Exhibited

London, William Darby Gallery, Exhibition of Drawings by John Constable, RA, May 1972, no. 11.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Although the location of the church in the present drawing is unknown, Graham Reynolds (op. cit.) has suggested that it may be in North London. Constable dated many of his sketches and it has therefore been possible to associate the present drawing with two others: one, of Hampstead, dated 2 October and another, of Hendon, dated 8 October. The sketch was executed at a time when Constable was engaged in preparing some of his famous works in oil: a family summer holiday in Salisbury provided him with the opportunity to make many studies of the Cathedral and nearby sites such as Old Sarum, and as the year drew to its close he embarked on painting The Hay Wain (National Gallery, London).

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