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Young boy writing at a table

Maker

(artist)
1776-1837

Title

Date of Production

1800 - 1899

Medium

black chalk and stumping on coarse grey laid paper, now discoloured

Dimensions

Height: 14 cm
Width: 17.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2541.2

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This drawing belongs to a group of fourteen purchased at Sotheby's in two frames, five of which are now in the Witt Bequest. The only other dated drawing is a study of Constable's daughter, Mary (1812). He made numerous informal portraits of his family and immediate circle over a long period, making it difficult to establish a date and sitter with certainty. It has been suggested that this might be the son born in 1817, but a comparable drawing (of a boy drawing in a book) has been linked to a portrait painted as early as 1806.

Provenance

by descent to grandson of the artist, Hugh Constable, London (1868-1949); purchased from him by Leggatt Bros. (London), October 1899; Sir Harry Baldwin, Isle of Wight (1863-1931); Sotheby's (London), 19 June 1933, lot 125, as a collection of 14 sketches in two frames; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

The Witt Collection - Four centuries of drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/04/2004-20/06/2004

catalogue untraced, Churchill Club, London, 1945

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 11
accession number given as 2541E

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Verso: centre, graphite, last word underlined: "J P / centre".

Collector's mark: none.

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