Oil painting, 'Landscape', after John Constable, mid 19th century

Bequeathed by John M. Parsons

Bequeathed by John M. Parsons, 1870
John Meeson Parsons (1798-1870), art collector, was born in Newport, Shropshire. He later settled in London, and became a member of the stock exchange. His interest in railways led to his election as an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1839, and he was director or chairman of two railway companies between 1843 and 1848. Much of his time however was spent collecting pictures and works of art. In his will he offered his collection of mostly German and Dutch schools to the National Gallery (which selected only three works) and to the Department of Science and Art at South Kensington, later the Victoria and Albert Museum. The South Kensington Museum acquired ninety-two oil paintings and forty-seven watercolours. A number of engravings were also left to the British Museum.

Historical significance: This painting is one of two paintings previously attributed John Constable which came to the South Kensington Museum, later the V&A as part of the Parsons bequest in 1870.

The painting was recorded as being by John Constable in the 1907 Catalogue of oil paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (p.303). The work has since been re-attributed to Anonymous British School. There is no note on the object file stating when the painting was re-attributed. However in his Catalogue of the Constable Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum (1960) Reynolds states that it is no longer attributed to John Constable (p.6). A note on the object file states that it was probably a copy after Constable. A number of the motifs, such as the winding path and watermill built alongside a pond occur in the work of Constable. However these also occur in contemporary works of artists such as Gainsborough, as well as the Norwich school. The painting does not follow any known works by the Constable. Elements such as the watermill suggest that the artist was looking at emulating the works of Constable.

References:
Catalogue of oil paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum,1907, p.49.

Reynolds, G., Catatlogue of the Constable Collection in teh Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1960, p. 6.

This painting is probably one of the many forgeries of Constables work produced in the nineteenth century. Fakes and forgeries of Constables works first started emerging in the 1840s and continued to appear in growing numbers in response to sales of his work at the end of the nineteenth century. This had reached such extremes by the turn of the century that the art historian Holmes warned about the growing number of fakes and forgeries in his book Constable, published in 1901 (see pages 237-238). In 1888, Constable's last surviving child, Isabel, gave a significant collection of her father’s works to the then South Kensington Museum. Following her death, her descendants sold many works from the family collection. Inscriptions were often added to these works by Isabel's family prior to their sale in order to give provenance and strengthen attributions to Constable, both in the sales immediately following Isabel’s death and those of the 1890s. In recent years some of these paintings have been reattributed, notably to John Constable's son Lionel. Some evidence supports the notion that the grandchildren were adding these inscriptions in good faith, but a remark from Hugh Constable made many years after these sales suggest that pressure from art dealers as well as financial difficulties prompted Constable’s descendants to add these inscriptions (See: Parris et al. p. 98-101).

References:

Holmes, C.J, Constable, London, 1901

Fleming, I, and Parris, L, The Discovery of Constable, London, 1984

516-1870