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拍品專文
This is one of a number of alternative designs by Constable for the The Seven Ages of Shakespeare, published by John van Voorst in 1840. In his introduction the editor John Martin wrote: 'The interest which [Constable] took in the trifling affair required of him is best evinced by the fact that he made nearly twenty sketches for the "melancholy Jaques", which by the kindness of C.R. Leslie, Esq, R.A., now accompanies this work'; the wood engraving by S. Williams, closest to the drawing in the British Museum (Reynolds, op.cit., pp. 281-2 no. 35.32, pl. 1041), appeared on p. 18.
The project seems to have been initiated by John Martin in about 1835. For other drawings by Constable, including one in the Victoria & Albert Museum, see Reynolds nos. 35.33 and 35.35-8.
The subject, from Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, shows the melancholic exiled Lord Jaques in the Forest of Arden with a companion, moralizing on the fate of a wounded deer, and Constable accompanied his exhibited watercolour with the words: 'The melancholic, feeling Jaques, whose mind grieved o'er the wounded weeping hind.'
The incident had been the subject of an oil painting by Constable's patron Sir George Beaumont (Tate Gallery, N00119). In 1828 Constable wrote to Dominic Colnaghi (R.B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence, vol. IV, Ipswich, 1966, p. 157): 'Let me know the fate of my drawing of Jaques. I wish to make a picture from it about a kitt catt [sic]' (a kit-kat being a 18th century small portrait size). This may refer to the work sent to David Lucas for engraving in 1830 as well as the 1832 Royal Academy exhibit.
For an earlier drawing also illustrating Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act II, scene I, see lot 40.
The project seems to have been initiated by John Martin in about 1835. For other drawings by Constable, including one in the Victoria & Albert Museum, see Reynolds nos. 35.33 and 35.35-8.
The subject, from Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, shows the melancholic exiled Lord Jaques in the Forest of Arden with a companion, moralizing on the fate of a wounded deer, and Constable accompanied his exhibited watercolour with the words: 'The melancholic, feeling Jaques, whose mind grieved o'er the wounded weeping hind.'
The incident had been the subject of an oil painting by Constable's patron Sir George Beaumont (Tate Gallery, N00119). In 1828 Constable wrote to Dominic Colnaghi (R.B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence, vol. IV, Ipswich, 1966, p. 157): 'Let me know the fate of my drawing of Jaques. I wish to make a picture from it about a kitt catt [sic]' (a kit-kat being a 18th century small portrait size). This may refer to the work sent to David Lucas for engraving in 1830 as well as the 1832 Royal Academy exhibit.
For an earlier drawing also illustrating Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act II, scene I, see lot 40.