John Constable R.A. (Suffolk 1776-1837 Hampstead)


Storm clouds: two studies on one sheet (recto) a preliminary draft, in the artist's hand, of the proposed text for the mezzotint of Spring (verso)pen and ink on paper31.6 x 18.2cm (12 7/16 x 7 3/16in).
|ProvenanceAlfred Lucas, brother of David Lucas, from whom purchased byE.E. LeggattR.B. Beckett Collection, UK, by 1956, from whom acquired by the late Dr and Mrs W Katz in 1965, and thence by descentExhibitedManchester, City of Manchester Art Gallery, John Constable 1776-1837, 1956, cat. no. 138New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837): an exhibition: paintings, drawings, watercolors, mezzotints, 9 May- 25 June 1988, cat. no. 75LiteratureR.B. Beckett, John Constable 1776-1837 exh. cat., Manchester, 1956, p. 43, cat. no. 138 R.B. Beckett, John Constable's Discourses, Suffolk, 1970, pp. 14-16 C.S. Rhyne, 'Constable Sketchbooks in the Louvre' in Master Drawings, vol. 22, no.1, 1984, p. 73, 77 under note 12, ill., fig. 6, p74G. Reynolds, John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837): an exhibition: paintings, drawings, watercolors, mezzotints exh. cat., New York, 1988, p. 136 cat. no. 75G. Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, pp. 254-255, cat. no. 33.48, ill. pl. 904The reverse of the present sheet is inscribed with a preliminary draft, in the artist's hand, of the proposed text for the mezzotint of Spring, which was to be included in English Landscape Scenery. Constable first discussed including explanations of each mezzotint in 1832 in a letter to David Lucas, with further talk of the matter in January 1834 in a letter to Leslie, in which he wrote 'I have been busy making a fly leaf to each of my prints... Many can read print & cannot read mezzotint' (for further discussion, see: R.B. Beckett, Constable's Discourse, Suffolk, 1970, p. 3). The second edition of English Landscape Scenery was published in 1833 without explanatory texts, and therefore a date is proposed of circa 1832-1834 for the present sheet.