Stonehenge
Watercolour
1835 (painted)
1835 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Constable painted this watercolour at a sad time in his life. Both his wife, Maria, and his closest friend, John Fisher, had died, and his two eldest sons had left home. He is perhaps expressing his personal unhappiness in the watercolour, for the image is certainly a melancholy one. The painting was exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1836. Some of the lines that accompanied this painting in the catalogue describe 'The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, standing remote on a bare and boundless heath...'. Constable himself probably wrote them.
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Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Stonehenge (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour |
| Brief description | Watercolour, 'Stonehenge' by Constable, 1835 |
| Physical description | Watercolour of stonehenge with a colourful sky. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'Stonehenge" The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, standing remote on a bare and boundless heath, as much unconnected with the events of past ages as it is with the uses of the present, carries you back beyond all historical records into the obscurity of a totally unknown period"' (Inscribed on the mount in ink in a careful script.) |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist |
| Historical context | 'In 1836 Constable's two exhibits at the Royal Academy were the 'Cenotaph to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds' (now in the Tate Gallery, No. 1272) and the watercolour 'Stonehenge' (No. 395 [1629-1888]). He gave four lectures on 'The History of Landscape Painting' at the Royal Institution in May and June of this year and his last lecture, at Hampstead, on 25 July. Constable died on 31 March 1837. His almost completed painting 'Arundel Mill and Castle' (now in the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio; see No. 379 [260-1888]) was exhibited posthumously at the Royal Academy.' [G Reynolds, 1973, p. 233] |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Places depicted | |
| Summary | Constable painted this watercolour at a sad time in his life. Both his wife, Maria, and his closest friend, John Fisher, had died, and his two eldest sons had left home. He is perhaps expressing his personal unhappiness in the watercolour, for the image is certainly a melancholy one. The painting was exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1836. Some of the lines that accompanied this painting in the catalogue describe 'The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, standing remote on a bare and boundless heath...'. Constable himself probably wrote them. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | 395, plate 296 - Reynolds catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1629-1888 |
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| Record created | February 17, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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