Lot Essay
This drawing is of Constable's first important series of marine subjects, made in 1803 on board the East Indiaman 'Coutts', commanded by the artist's father's friend Captain Torin. The trip took place two years before Trafalgar, so many of Constable's drawings are of ships which must have been preparing for one of the greatest sea battles in history. Constable was on board for nearly a month until shortly before 6 May when he went ashore at the Downs, having embarked on the Thames in London. (For this journey, see C.R. Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, London, 1951 edn., pp. 15-17). The earliest dated drawings were executed on 18 April, near Gravesend (Reynolds, op.cit., pp. 45-6, nos. 03.5 and 03.7). According to Leslie he did 130 drawings in all, of which 47 are listed in Reynolds, op.cit, pp. 45-51. This example is among a group probably executed after Constable disembarked from 'Coutts' at Gravesend. In a letter to John Dunthorne on 23 May, Constable wrote: 'At Chatham I hired a boat to see the men of war' (see exhibition catalogue Dulwich Picture Gallery, Constable, A Master Draughtsman, London, 1994, p. 96). The present drawing is remarkable for its observation and fluidity: a Man-o-War is depicted literally taking the wind out of the sails of the small boat on the left. According to Leslie, Constable left his drawings on board the 'Coutts'. At the time of his death his son Charles Golding Constable, who, as a sailor, was particularly interested in the drawings, was anxious about their fate, claiming that they had been given to him (I. Fleming-Williams and L. Parris, The Discovery of Constable, London, 1984, pp. 12-13). Some have been firmly traced back to him; the provenance of others is uncertain (see also lot 20).