Drawing, 'The Marine Parade and Chain Pier, Brighton' by Constable.

The drawing is on a sheet of paper, 14 5/8ins. (370 mm.) wide, with a fold down the middle, extended by a strip attached on the left, and the larger sheet so formed has also been folded down the middle. The original sheet bears the truncated watermark: D MILL 24; the continuation sheet bears the remainder of the watermark: BASTE 18.

Given by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist

Historical significance: This is a study used by Constable for his large oil painting 'The Marine Parade and Chain Pier, Brighton', exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1827, and now in the Tate Gallery, No. 5957. Since the Albion Hotel, just built in 1826, is seen in the drawing it is perhaps to be dated to the autumn of that year (information from the Brighton Art Gallery). The sketch was used with minor variations for the middle distance, beginning about a quarter of the way up the canvas and extending to about half way up. The pen alterations introduced, mainly on the continuation sheet, were designed to test the effect of introducing a hut and breakwater at the left of the composition, and Constable carried this addition into the finished picture, placing a fishing boat partially in front of the hut and extending the composition still further to the left. For sketches used for foreground objects in the painting see No. 273 [Museum No. 605-1888]. Mayne notes (L. ed. M., pp. 415, 416) two oil studies for the picture in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a pencil sketch said to be in a private collection in the U.S.A. M. Chamot (Connoisseur, Vol. CXXXVII, 1956 p. 262) shows that the composition of the painting in the Tate Gallery has been changed through the cutting down of the canvas, removing a standing figure and a large sail on the extreme left.

In 1827 Constable exhibited at the Royal Academy 'Chain Pier, Brighton' (Tate Gallery, No. 5957; see No. 289 [Museum. No. 289-1888], 'Mill, Gillingham, Dorset' (see No. 288 [Museum No. 1632-1888]) and 'Hampstead Heath'. To the British Institution he sent a version of 'The Glebe Farm' (see No. 111 [Museum No. 161-1888]).

289-1888