The Valley of the Stour with Dedham in the Distance thumbnail 1
The Valley of the Stour with Dedham in the Distance thumbnail 2
Not on display

The Valley of the Stour with Dedham in the Distance

Oil Painting
ca. 1800 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Constable, John (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (painted)

This painting depicts the Stour valley in Essex. The river passes under the bridge at Stratford St Mary and meanders through Dedham, with its high church tower, to the estuary at Harwich. The clear naturalism and sense of light owe much to Constable's practice of making oil sketches in the open air.

Object details

Category
Paintings
Object type
Oil painting
TitleThe Valley of the Stour with Dedham in the Distance (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on paper laid on canvas
Oil Paint
Paper
Canvas
Oil Painting
Brief description
Oil painting, 'The Valley of the Stour, with Dedham in the Distance', John Constable, ca. 1800
Physical description
Oil painting
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 49.8cm
  • Estimate width: 60cm
  • Frame height: 67cm
  • Frame width: 77cm
  • Frame depth: 10.5cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973
Style
British School
Credit line
Given by Isabel Constable
Object history
Given by Isabel Constable, 1888
Historical context
In 1805 Constable exhibited 'A Landscape: Moonlight' at the Royal Academy. According to an unpublished entry in the Diary, he called on Farington on 1 June to say that he had been engaged to paint an altarpiece for a country church. This picture was probably the altarpiece for Brantham Curch which Leslie assigns to the previous year (Beckett, I, pp. 18-9)

G Reynolds, 1973, p. 52.
Subject depicted
Landscape
Place depicted
Dedham
Summary
This painting depicts the Stour valley in Essex. The river passes under the bridge at Stratford St Mary and meanders through Dedham, with its high church tower, to the estuary at Harwich. The clear naturalism and sense of light owe much to Constable's practice of making oil sketches in the open air.
Bibliographic references
  • Parris, Leslie and Fleming-Williams, Ian. Constable London : The Tate Gallery, 1991 no.7
  • Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, cat. no. 63
  • Evans, M., with N. Costaras and C. Richardson, John Constable. Oil Sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A, 2011, p. 40, cat. no. 4.
  • P. 234 Carolina Brook and Valter Curzi, eds., Hogarth, Reynolds, Turner : British painting and the rise of modernity Milan : Skira, c2014. ISBN: 9788857222714.
  • p. 89 David Jackson, Werner Busch, Jenny Reynaerts, Andreas Blühm, and Ruud Schenk Romanticism in the North : from Friedrich to Turner. Groningen : Groninger Museum ; Zwolle : WBooks, [2017]. ISBN: 9789462582415
Other number
63 - Reynolds catalogue no.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
321-1888

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Record createdMay 13, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80702/the-valley-of-the-stour-oil-painting-constable-john-ra/
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