by-nc

Rowing boat moored beneath a bank

Maker

(artist)
1776-1837

Title

Rowing boat moored beneath a bank

Date of Production

c. 1809

Medium

graphite (recto), black chalk offset (verso) on blue-grey laid paper (examined under microscope)

Dimensions

Height: 9 cm
Width: 12.5 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3943

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




Notes

Although small and unassuming, this sketch occupies an important place in Constable's oeuvre. He used it in several of his most important finished paintings: for the boat seen in The White Horse (Frick, A520D and sketch in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 605), in The Hay Wain (National Gallery, London NG1207) and in Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (Tate T13896).

Provenance

Charles Golding Constable (1821-1879); Beaux Arts Gallery (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Discover Constable and the Hay Wain, National Gallery, London, 17/10/2024-02/02/2025

John Constable - The Great Landscapes, San Marino & California & USA, 03/02/2007-29/04/2007

John Constable - The Great Landscapes, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 01/10/2006-31/12/2006 ...More

John Constable - The Great Landscapes, Tate Britain, London, 01/06/2006-28/08/2006

Constable: paintings, watercolours and drawings, Tate Gallery, London, 18/02/1976-25/04/1976 ...Less

Literature

Kentridge, William, Constable's White Horse, New York, The Frick Collection 2020
p. 51
ill. on p. 51

Reynolds, Graham, The early paintings and drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996
no. 09.77 on p. 140 and p. 28
pl. 807

Cormack, Malcolm, Constable, Oxford: Phaidon, 1986
p. 128
pl. 127 ...More

Fleming-Williams, Ian, Constable: landscape watercolours & drawings, London: Tate Gallery Publications, 1976
p. 121
fig. 93

Constable: paintings, watercolours & drawings, Tate Gallery, 18 February - 25 April 1976 London: Tate Gallery 1976
no. 191
ill.

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 13

Riding, Christine, Mary McMahon, Jenny Gaschke, Anne Lyles, Emma Roodhouse, and National Gallery (Great Britain), Discover Constable and the Hay Wain, London: National Gallery, 2024.
p. 43
fig.71 on p. 97 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: none.

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