Portrait of William Fisher, son of the Reverend John Fisher, Archdeacon of Berkshire, bust-length, in a white dress

Details

John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837)
Portrait of William Fisher, son of the Reverend John Fisher, Archdeacon of Berkshire, bust-length, in a white dress
oil on panel
10 3/8 x 11 7/8 in. (26.3 x 20.2 cm.)

Provenance

Archdeacon John Fisher, and by descent to
John Fisher; Sotheby's, London, 2 May 1962, lot 110.
with Thomas Agnews & Sons, Ltd. (inv. no. 24203), from whom purchased, in 1963, by Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (Derby Fund purchase, 1963).

Literature

Hon. A. Shirley, John Constable, R.A., London, 1944, pl. 15.
R.B. Beckett, John Constable and the Fishers, The Record of a Friendship, London, 1952, p. 139, pl. 6.
John Constable's Correspondence, VI: The Fishers, R.B. Beckett ed., Suffolk Records Society, 1968, p.129, pl. 9.
Catalogue of the Columbus Museum of Art, 1978, p. 137.
J.D. Mores, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 58.
R. Hoozee, L'Opera completa di Constable, Milan, 1979, no. 374.
G. Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1984, I, 23.21, II, pl. 410.

Exhibited

London, Wildenstein & Co. Ltd., John Constable, R.A: His Origins and Influence, a centenary exhibition, May 1937, no. 53, lent by the Trustees of the late Rev. O. P. Fisher.
New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, John Constable, R.A., 1988, no. 43.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The Reverend John Fisher (1788-1832), Archdeacon of Berkshire, was one of Constable's closest friends and also one of his principal patrons. He purchased, among other works, the first two six-foot canvases that Constable exhibited at the Royal Academy, The White Horse (1819) and Stratford Mill (1821). Fisher provided the intellectual stimulation that was somewhat lacking in the rather limited circle of Constable's artist friends and Constable frequently refers to the strength and importance of his friendship in their extensive correspondence. Fisher officiated at Constable's wedding in 1816 and the newly-weds spent several weeks of their honeymoon with him, during which time Constable painted portraits of John Fisher and his wife (G. Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 16.83, pl. 1342 and 17.3, pl. 2). Constable made this sketch of John Fisher's second son William, known as 'Belim', during his stay with the Fishers at Gillingham in 1823. He had taken a great liking to 'Belim' who was two years and ten months old at the time of the sketch, wrote to his wife on 5 September 1823:

'Belim ... has taken a liking to me & I to him. He is [a] strong robust fellow, more so than any of them ... blue eyes, fair skin ... and soft. Fisher says he kisses 'like a marrow pudding'.
(R.B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence, II, p.282).
In the same letter he refers to the portrait, 'Mrs F.[isher] has taken my Belim to Bath...but I have done a little sketch of him which they like'. (op. cit. II, p. 287). This is Constable's only portrait of the boy.

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