Drawing 'Study of ash trees' by John Constable

Pencil drawing of two ash trees with dramatically shadowed trunks and sunlit crowns. The tree in the foreground has a dead branch hanging down two-thirds of the way up the trunk.

Given by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist

Historical significance: In 1818 Constable first exhibited one of his tree studies at the Royal Academy; previously he had exhibited oil paintings almost exclusively there.

In 1817 Constable exhibited four works at the Royal Academy: 'Scene on a navigable river' ('Flatford Mill on the River Stour') (Tate Gallery No. 1273); 'A Cottage' (see No. 352 [1631-1888]); 'Wivenhoe Park, Essex, the seat of Major-General Rebow' (National Gallery of Art, Washington: Widener Collection); and a portrait of John Fisher, still in the Fisher family collection. He spent ten weeks of the summer at East Bergholt. His first child, John Charles, was born on 4 December.

[G Reynolds, 1973, p. 115]

Constable usually made studies directly from nature for his large oil paintings, and this study of ash trees may be an example of his working method: the foremost tree, with a dead branch hanging against its trunk, appears to be the same as that in the right foreground of a painting owned by Tate Britain, The Valley Farm. However, the sketch's resemblance to studies of ash trees at Hampstead may suggest that this is an independent drawing, done after the completion of the painting.

252-1888