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Lot Essay
The present drawing is from a sketchbook used by Constable in 1808 and 1809. A drawing of St Mary-ad-Murum Church, Colchester, executed on the same visit is dated 'Octr. 29. 1808'. There is a similar drawing, also from the same sketchbook, entitled The Ruins of St Botolph's Priory, in the collection of Colchester Museums (Reynolds, op.cit., no. 08.15, pl. 696) and a larger version at Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (Reynolds, op.cit., no. 08.16, pl. 694).
The appearance of the present drawing brings to six the total of known landscape drawings executed in 1808, all views in Colchester and all except Reynolds, no. 08.16, from the same sketchbook. All other works from this year are drawn from life or after the antique.
Many of the sketchbooks used by Constable were not actually designed as sketchbooks, but rather small pocket notebooks, primarily for writing. Lots 128 and 129 are from the same sketchbook. Reynolds lists 42 drawings from this sketchbook, however Peter Bower has commented that these notebooks were generally made up of 64, 80 or 96 leaves, using four, five or six whole sheets, folded into 16 and then trimmed during binding.
The appearance of the present drawing brings to six the total of known landscape drawings executed in 1808, all views in Colchester and all except Reynolds, no. 08.16, from the same sketchbook. All other works from this year are drawn from life or after the antique.
Many of the sketchbooks used by Constable were not actually designed as sketchbooks, but rather small pocket notebooks, primarily for writing. Lots 128 and 129 are from the same sketchbook. Reynolds lists 42 drawings from this sketchbook, however Peter Bower has commented that these notebooks were generally made up of 64, 80 or 96 leaves, using four, five or six whole sheets, folded into 16 and then trimmed during binding.