A Windmill near Brighton thumbnail 1
A Windmill near Brighton thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, room WS , Case R, Shelf 98, Box R

A Windmill near Brighton

Oil Painting
1824-1829 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Constable, John (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (painted)

As Constable’s father owned a windmill, the painter was familiar with their workings. Constable based this sketch on a painting called The Mill, which at the time was attributed to Rembrandt. He greatly admired it as ‘a picture wholly made by chiaroscuro; the last ray of light just gleams on the upper sail of the mill, and all other details are lost in large and simple masses of shade’.


Object details

Categories
Access_to_Images 2003
Paintings
SCRAN
Object type
Oil painting
TitleA Windmill near Brighton (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on canvas
Oil Paint
Canvas
Oil Painting
Brief description
Oil sketch of a windmill near Brighton by Constable.
Physical description
Painting of a windmill (from behind and to the right).
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 14.6cm
  • Estimate width: 11.4cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973 Frame dims: 570 x 418 x 40 mm
Style
British School
Credit line
Given by Isabel Constable
Object history
Given by Isabel Constable, 1888
Historical context
'In 1828 Constable exhibited at the Royal Academy two paintings called 'Landscape'. One was 'Dedham Vale' (National Gallery of Scotland, No. 2016); the other was 'Hampstead Heath' (No. 301 in this Catalogue [FA.35]). His seventh child, Lionel Bicknell, was born on 2 January. Mrs. Constable died on 23 November.'

[G Reynolds, 1973, p.185]
Subject depicted
Windmill
Summary
As Constable’s father owned a windmill, the painter was familiar with their workings. Constable based this sketch on a painting called The Mill, which at the time was attributed to Rembrandt. He greatly admired it as ‘a picture wholly made by chiaroscuro; the last ray of light just gleams on the upper sail of the mill, and all other details are lost in large and simple masses of shade’.
Bibliographic references
  • Gray, Anne and John Gage, Constable: impressions of land, sea and sky, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2006
  • Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 185, 189-190
  • p. 69 Shân Lancaster, ed. Constable and Brighton: something out of nothing. London : Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2017. ISBN: 9781785510694.
  • Feaver, William, Lucian Freud on John Constable, London, British Council, 2003
Other number
310, plate 233 - Reynolds catalogue no.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
588-1888

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Record createdAugust 27, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O83786/a-windmill-near-brighton-oil-painting-constable-john-ra/
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