- Museum number
- 1936,0314.1
- Description
-
Landscape with a windmill at Stoke, near Ipswich; a windmill on a hill at left, a horse and cart on a track near the foreground, a river winding through undulating country beyond. 1805
Pen and grey ink and grey wash, over graphite
- Production date
- 1805
- Dimensions
-
Height: 118 millimetres
-
Width: 166 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Stoke, near Ipswich, was the home of George Frost, an amateur artist and early sketching companion of Constable's (see also 1856-5-10-792). Referring probably to a sketch on which 1936-3-14-1 was based, Constable wrote to John Dunthorne in 1814, "It is a pretty subject", adding, "it is one of the Stoke mills I was at with you & Mr Frost when I did it many years ago" (R.B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence I, 1962, p. 101). This drawing is now in a private collection (R05.17). 1936-3-14-1 is the same size, and follows it in most respects, but with the addition of important elements of narrative detail, the figure descending the steps of the mill, and the horse and cart waiting on the lane below. In the distance, the town with its church spire is introduced, far right, and the sky is given greater definition, with its blustery clouds and slanting light over the horizon. The most significant variation of all are the shadows cast by the sails of the mill across the foreground. These also figure in a later copy of this drawing made in 1814 for the poet Peter Coxe, to be engraved as an illustration to his poem, 'The Social Day' (R14.4, V&A). A prospectus seeking subscribers for the poem was issued in 1813, but in the event the work was not published until 1823, although the engravings had appeared separately in 1822 (the Constable image engraved by John Landseer, see 1942,1210.2 for a proof impression). The poem makes specific reference to these shadows, in the lines, "As its broad arms oppose the sky, / Bidding gigantic shadows fly". The observation of such a specific interaction of light, movement and shadows was highly original; it was one of the elements of Constable's art which he laboured throughout his career to express. Since the long gesation of the poem allowed Coxe to adapt his text to its illustrations (and Constable was not named as an illustrator in the original prospectus), it seems more likely that the poet took this unusual detail from the image, rather than the artist offering a drawing in which this feature appeared.
The appearance of these shadows in a drawing of 1805 is in itself something of a breakthough for Constable. This may have been prompted by the recollection of Rembrandt's famous painting 'The Mill' (National Gallery, Washington, D.C., long attributed to Aert de Gleder, but now regarded again by some scholars as Rembrandt), to which the composition of the drawing makes reference, where dramatic use of light and shade is the most notable characteristic, much commented on at the time. Constable made a watercolour copy of the painting in 1806 (R06.287).
The drawing bears an inscription to J.T.Smith, one of Constable's earliest mentors, who was then Keeper of the Prints and Drawings collection in the British Museum. Two other drawings were inscribed to Smith in the same year, an 1805 watercolour of Dedham Vale (R05,12, coll. Mrs W. Katz) and a watercolour of East Bergholt Church (R06.8; Yale Center for British Art).
Lit: E.Croft-Murray, BMQ X1935/6, pp.151-2.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2020-2021 19 Sep-28 Feb, Haarlem, Teylers Museum, 'John Constable and the Netherlands'
- Acquisition date
- 1936
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
See letter from Mr Simonson in 1936 letter book.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1936,0314.1
