Bridge Cottage and Flatford Bridge

Details

John Constable, R.A. (1778-1837)
Bridge Cottage and Flatford Bridge
inscribed 'E. B. - J[une] 1806 - 6 o Clock' (on the reverse) and with inscription 'Cottage and Wooden bridge/at Flatford. June 13^t^h 1806/at 6 in the evening./By the late John Constable R.A.' (on a label attached to the backboard)
pencil and watercolour
3 5/8 x 5 3/8 in. (9.3 x 13.8 cm.)

Provenance

The artist's sister Mary Constable (1781-1865).
The Rev. D.C. Whalley (1806-1869), her nephew.
The Rev. T.H. Waller.
Canon A.P. Waller.
Mrs V.E. Cole; Neal's, Woodbridge, 9 November 1971, lot 34 (sold to Harold Day).

Literature

R.B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence: The Family at East Bergholt 1807-1837, London, 1962, p. 315.
H. Day, Constable Drawings, Eastbourne, 1975, p. 32, pl. 18.
C.S. Rhyne, 'Constable Drawings and Watercolours in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and the Yale Center for British Art: Part II: Reattributed Works', Master Drawings, vol. XIX, no. 4, winter 1981, p. 416, under no. II. 20.
G. Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1996, p. 75, no. 06.26, pl. 331.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Constable was in Suffolk for part of June 1806, supporting the evidence of the inscriptions.

Another of Constable's sisters, Martha, married Nathaniel Whalley, father of the Rev. Daniel Constable Whalley who inherited a number of works from his aunt Mary (see Beckett, loc. cit., and Reynolds, op. cit., p. 22).

Rhyne discusses a pencil copy of this watercolour in the Mellon collection and attributes the copy to the studio of James Orrock (4¾ x 5 7/8 in. 11.9 x 13.9 cm., see Rhyne, loc. cit., pl. 8).

The cottage was occupied by a horseman who worked for the Constable family.

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