John Constable R.A.

(East Bergholt 1776-1837 London)

Design for the frontispiece of English Landscape Scenery

Footnotes

Provenance
With Leggatt Brothers, September 1943, where purchased by the late Dr. and Mrs W. Katz, and thence by descent to the present owners

Exhibited
London, Tate Gallery, Constable Paintings, Watercolours & Drawings, 1976, cat. no. 273

Literature
L. Parris, I. Fleming-Williams and C. Shields, Constable Paintings, Watercolours & Drawings, exh. cat., London, 1976, pp. 160-162, cat. no. 273, ill.
G. Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1996, p. 230, cat. no. 31.17, ill, pl. 805

The subject is East Bergholt House, Constable's family home which he chose as the frontispiece (fig. 1) of his series of 22 landscape mezzotints, English Landscape Scenery, engraved by David Lucas. The addition of the drawn frame is clearly a reference to Turner's frontispiece for his Liber Studiorum which illustrates a framed painting against a backdrop of Romanesque architecture.

The final printed version of Constable's frontispiece shows the house from a different angle, further round to the right with the light falling on its right side, and the preparatory drawing for that version is now lost. Graham Reynolds notes that the present drawing is probably based on the sketch Constable made of his father's house on page 30 of the 1813 sketchbook.

Constable was very fond of his birthplace, including it in a number of his works and painting many views from both the back and front aspects of the house. His father Golding had built it for his growing family when Flatford Mill became too small for them. It was pulled down in 1840 or 1841 but the stable block survives.