drawing
- Museum number
- 1888,0215.29
- Description
-
Stoke-by-Nayland; view in a dell, a cottage enclosed by trees, a large church beyond and houses at left, a cow and figures in the foreground. 1832
Watercolour, with pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1832
- Dimensions
-
Height: 143 millimetres
-
Width: 196 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This watercolour is based on a small pencil drawing in Constable's 1814 sketchbook, dated 'Augt 30 1814' (R14.32, p. 39). It may well have been the work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832 as 'A church' (no. 632). In 1829, Constable referred to the view of Stoke by Nayland mezzotinted by David Lucas for 'English Landscape Scenery' as 'the Church'.
This was the first time Constable had exhibited a watercolour since 1806, and his three contributions were noticed by the reviewer of the Literary Gazette, who wrote, 'Under these numbers we have a church, a mill and a farm-house, making a trio of rural associations at once picturesque and pleasing. Need we add, that they sparkle and glitter with the dew of Mr Constable's pencil? Indeed as water-colours, so they ought' (16 June 1832, p. 378; J. Ivy, 'Constable and the critics', 1991, p. 163).
A small, late sepia drawing which appears to be a repetition of this composition, perhaps from memory, is in the Hornby Library, Liverpool (R36.32).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1888
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1888,0215.29
