Weymouth Bay
Oil Painting
1816 (painted)
1816 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Constable painted this sketch of Bowleaze Cove in Weymouth Bay during his honeymoon. It served as a study for a painting that was exhibited three years later. The figures on the beach may represent his hosts, the Reverend and Mrs Fisher, or the artist and his bride.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Weymouth Bay (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil sketch of a Coastal landscape by John Constable, England, 1816 |
| Physical description | Oil painting of a beach scene with figures. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'JC' (Inscribed (monogram) in ink by the artist, back) |
| Gallery label | "Label" created for Elise Load [Author unknown]:
After their marriage in 1816, John and Maria Constable spent most of their honeymoon at Osmington, near Weymouth, Dorset. The artist must have painted this on the spot, during a sudden spell of stormy weather. The immediacy of his reaction and expression is a quality we associate more with French Impressionism of some fifty years later, but it reminds us that Constable's work was much admired in France (another version of Weymouth Bay is today in the Louvre in Paris) and influenced two generations of French painters. Especially notable here are the figures, walking their dogs on the beach and battling their umbrellas against the wind, conjured from a few rapid strokes of his brush. It is also a fine example of Constable's thesis that 'it will be difficult to name a class of landscape in which the sky is not the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment'. |
| Credit line | Given by Isabel Constable |
| Object history | Given by Isabel Constable, 1888 |
| Historical context | In 1816 Constable exhibited 'The Wheatfield' and 'A Wood: Autumn' at the Royal Academy. His father died on 14 May. He spent some of the summer in Suffolk and paid two visits to Wivenhoe. He was married by his friend John Fisher to Miss Bicknell on 2 October at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and they spent part of the honeymoon staying with Fisher at his vicarage at Osmington, Dorsetshire. [G Reynolds, 1973, p. 110] |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Constable painted this sketch of Bowleaze Cove in Weymouth Bay during his honeymoon. It served as a study for a painting that was exhibited three years later. The figures on the beach may represent his hosts, the Reverend and Mrs Fisher, or the artist and his bride. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | 155, plate 127 - Reynolds catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 330-1888 |
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| Record created | December 15, 1999 |
| Record URL |
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