Drawing,, A ruined cottage at Capel, Suffolk, by John Constable, pen and ink, 1796
358-1888 on reverse

A pen and ink drawing of a ruined cottage, backed by trees, on the bank of a stream. The stone chimney survives intact; the roof is gone; some of the wall timbers and part of the gable opposite the chimney remain, but lean precariously.

Given by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist

This drawing is one of the thirteen earliest dated drawings by Constable whose whereabouts are known. A visitor to the Museum from the neighbourhood of Capel St. Mary said (c.1920-30) that the tradition about the old woman being burnt still persisted although the cottage had disappeared. The peculiar circumstance was that nothing in the cottage except the old woman was burnt; apparently witchcraft was suspected. [Reynolds, p. 35]

John Constable was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk, on 11 June 1776, the second son of Golding Constable, a well-to-do mill-owner, and Ann Watts. His fondness for painting, without any marked precocity, had already declared itself by the time he was 16 or 17: and he was encouraged in this taste by his friendship with John Dunthorne, a plumber and glazier of East Bergholt, who was an amateur painter.

Excluding copies after engravings, 358A-1888 is among the earliest dated drawings by Constable of which the whereabouts are now known. In 1796, Constable, not yet firmly committed to an artistic career, met the writer J. T. 'Antiquity' Smith, who was compiling Remarks on Rural Scenery; With twenty etchings of Cottages, from Nature; and some observations and precepts relative to the pictoresque (published June 1797). Constable wrote to Smith in October 1796, offering to send him several drawings of cottages, perhaps from this sketchbook, which he might find suitable for his purposes. Although Smith apparently responded positively, none of Constable's drawings appears in the published edition.

In 1797 Constable was following his father's business in Suffolk. In 1799 he went to London to pursue his career in the arts, and on Farington's recommendation he was admitted as a probationer to the Academy Schools in March of that year.

Lt.-Col. C. A. Brooks considers that this drawing represents a cottage at Marsh Farm, Brantham, which was demolished in 1958 (G. Reynolds, Catalogue of the Constable Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1973, p.34)In 1796, Constable, not yet firmly committed to an artistic career, met the writer J. T. 'Antiquity' Smith, who was compiling Remarks on Rural Scenery; With twenty etchings of Cottages, from Nature; and some observations and precepts relative to the pictoresque (published June 1797). Constable wrote to Smith in October 1796, offering to send him several drawings of cottages, perhaps from this sketchbook, which he might find suitable for his purposes. Although Smith apparently responded positively, none of Constable's drawings appears in the published edition.

Constable's inscription at the top of the drawing notes that this cottage was the subject of a local legend. A few years previously, an old woman had burned to death inside, leaving the rest of the cottage unscathed by the flames; apparently witchcraft was suspected.

This drawing comes from Constable's earliest known sketchbook. In 1796, he had not yet committed himself to an artistic career and it was assumed that he would enter his father's business in Suffolk. That year he met the writer J. T. 'Antiquity' Smith, who was collecting material for a book on rural scenery, and showed him several drawings of local cottages -- perhaps including this one -- for possible inclusion. Although Smith responded positively, he ultimately did not use any of Constable's sketches in the published book.

358A-1888