A cart at Gillingham

Physical description

Page from a sketchbook on paper. Figure beside a cart, attached to a horse.

Place of Origin

Dorset, England (made)

Date

31 July 1820 (made)

Artist/maker

John Constable, born 1776 - died 1837 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Pencil on paper

Marks and inscriptions

Gillingham Dorset July 31st 1820
J WH 18

Dimensions

Height: 11.4 cm, Width: 18.4 cm

Historical context note

In 1820 Constable exhibited at the Royal Academy 'Stratford Mill' (now in the collection of Sir Reginald Macdonald-Buchanan) and 'A View of Harwich Lighthouse' (see No. 142 [302-1888] above).
He stayed with Fisher at Salisbury in July and August, settled his wife and children at Hampstead by 1 September, and paid a brief visit to Malvern Hall.

[G Reynolds, 1973, p. 127]

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

Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 127, 130, 134
The following is an extract from the text of the entry:

Page from a sketch-book.

Note on Nos. 185-190 [296-1888, 309-1888, 619-1888, 824-1888, 820-1888, 293-1888], 193-195 [262-1888, 261-1888, 279-18888], 198 [310-1888], 199 [617-1888], 201 [299-1888], 202 [621-1888], and 205 [821-1888]

In 1820 Constable used two sketch-books each measuring 115 x 186 mm., one with the Whatman watermark of 1817, the other with the watermark of Dickinson (unless, of course, he had a single book made up of these different papers). Nos. 187 [619-1888] , 190 [293-1888], 193 [262-1888], and 201 [299-1888] come from the Whatman book, Nos. 198 [310-1888] and 202 [621-1888] from the Dickinson book. Nos. 185 [296-1888], 186 [309-1888], 188 [824-1888], 189 [820-1888], 194 [261-1888], 195 [279-1888], 199 [617-1888] and perhaps also No. 205 [821-1888], come from one or other of the books, but bear no watermarks. Constable used sketch-books of the size 115 x 186 mm. in 1812? (No. 118 [263-1888]), unless, as seems more probable, he has misdated a page of one of the 1820 sketch-books, in this instance, 1815? (No. 142 [302-1888]), 1817, and again later in 1828 (Nos. 302 [294-1888], 304-309 [350-1888, 199a-1888, 199-1888, 199b-1888, 199c-1888, 207-1888]), whilst books measuring 115 x 181 mm. were in use in 1815 and 1816. (See also Nos. 179-182 [265-1888, 301-1888, 620-1888, 295-1888] for other sketch-book pages of this size)

Exhibition History

Constable: a breath of fresh air (The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield 08/02/2003-27/04/2003)
John Constable, selected by Lucian Freud (Grand Palais 10/10/2002-13/01/2003)

Collection code

PDP