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Lot Essay
This oil sketch was one of five given by Isabel Constable, the artist's daughter to Alice Fenwick. The latter's father, Harry Ashby, was an artist and engraver and a friend of Constable. It remained in the family until sold at Christie's in 1982.
Graham Reynolds compares this vigorous and powerful sketch to two similar scenes in the collection of the Royal Academy, London (op. cit., pls. 538, see fig. 1, and 539) and notes that this small group was painted between 1824 and 1828 while the artist was in Brighton. In these Constable explores his traditional interest in meteorological effects, but in the rare context of the sea rather than the more familiar one of land. The tiny boats set against the vast sky and stormy sea show a typical romantic preoccupation with the frailty of human endeavour in the face of elemental forces.
Graham Reynolds compares this vigorous and powerful sketch to two similar scenes in the collection of the Royal Academy, London (op. cit., pls. 538, see fig. 1, and 539) and notes that this small group was painted between 1824 and 1828 while the artist was in Brighton. In these Constable explores his traditional interest in meteorological effects, but in the rare context of the sea rather than the more familiar one of land. The tiny boats set against the vast sky and stormy sea show a typical romantic preoccupation with the frailty of human endeavour in the face of elemental forces.