Elm trees in Old Hall Park, East Bergholt

Place of Origin

East Bergholt, United Kingdom (made)

Date

22/10/1817 (made)

Artist/maker

John Constable, born 1776 - died 1837 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Pencil, with slight grey and white washes.

Marks and inscriptions

Octr. 22d 1817 East Bergholt John Constable
This noble Elm--stood in the Park of Peter Godfrey Esq--called "Old Hall" Park at East Bergholt--Suffolk it was blown down April 1835. it broke even with ground--it measured when standing upright[?] 10 x d having [?] formerly ]?] lost the large arm on the Right J.C. This drawing was made 1816. in Autumn.
The above is the Handwriting of John Constable R.A. (who made the Drawing)--Purchased at the sale of his Pictures and Drawings, at Fosters in--Pall Mall. 16 May 1838--A. James.

Dimensions

Height: 59.1 cm, Width: 49.5 cm

Historical context note

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]

Descriptive line

Drawing, 'Elm Trees in Old Hall park, East Bergholt' by Constable.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Parris, Leslie and Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable London : The Tate Gallery, 1991. ISBN 1854370707 / 1854370715. 544 p. : ill. (some col.)
Exhibition catalogue
Grey, Anne and John Gage Constable. Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2006. ISBN: 0642541566.
Exhibition catalogue.
Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 115, 118
The following is an extract from the text of the entry:

Holmes (p. 244) plausibly identifies this with the drawing 'Elms' exhibited by Constable at the Royal Academy in 1818; it was on this basis included in the exhibition 'The First Hundred Years of the Royal Academy' 1951-2, No. 443. Holmes's further statement that the drawing was bought in at the Executors' sale, 16 May 1838, is disproved by the inscription on the back, idntifying it with Lot 63 (sold for 7 gns. to White junr.). The drawing was Lot 168 at Miss James's sale at Messrs. Christie's, 22 June 1891, whence it was bought for the Museum. The year 1817, written on the front at the time when the drawing was made, is doubtless right; 1816 was added on the back by the artist from memory some eighteen years later.
The symbol 10 x in the inscription perhaps implies that the elm measured about ten times the height of a man, or ten diameters; the tree in Constable's drawing is in fact about twelve times the height of the man standing under it. A lable inscribed Miss James No. 8 (The figure 8 in pencil) from the back of the frame is preserved in the archives of the Department of Paintings.
For Old Hall see the note to No. 42a.[806-1888].

Exhibition History

Constable. Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky (Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington 05/07/2006-08/10/2006)
Constable. Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 03/03/2006-12/06/2006)
John Constable (Grand Palais 10/10/2002-13/01/2003)
Art on the line (Courtauld Gallery, Courtauld Institute of Art 01/10/2001-31/01/2002)
Constable (Tate 13/06/1991-15/09/1991)

Collection code

PDP