Landscape with milkmaids and huntsmen

Constable often copied works by earlier artists in his youth; his copy of Claude's Embarcation of Carlo and Ubaldo, dated 1795, is particularly close (see Christie's London, 7 April 1992, lot 113 (3,600)) and a later watercolour dated '1798', the year before the present watercolour is thought to have been executed, entitled A woodland scene with woodcutter in the foreground, after Everdingen, (Christie's London, 7 April 1998, lot 13 (4,370)).

The oil painting by Rubens from which this watercolour derives, is now in the Staatlich Museum, Gemldegalerie, Berlin. At the end of the 17th Century the picture was in the collection of Sir William Lowther, Bt., where it is believed to have remained until its purchase by Lord George Cavendish of Holker Hall in 1815 (see M. Jaff, Rubens, Milan, 1989, p. 350, no. 1219, illustrated). It has not been possible to ascertain if Constable actually saw the original oil painting by Rubens, but the 'warmth' of the palette suggests that Constable may have taken the composition from a monochrome print and therefore had some licence with the application of the colour. The print was engraved by Schlete a Bolswert (V.5.53), and it is possible Constable may have owned Schelte a Bolswert's print of the subject; in day three of the Constable print sale at Foster's, 12 May 1828, the catalogue lists as lot 371 'the set of large landscapes by Bolswert, after Rubens', and as lot 372 'small landscapes, after ditto, by the same'.