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Sty Head Tarn, Borrowdale

Watercolour
12 October 1806 (made)
Artist/Maker
Constable, John (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Borrowdale (made)

Mountainous scene with lake in pencil and watercolour.
On the back is a rough pencil sketch of the same scenery.

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Object details

Categories
Watercolours
Landscapes
Object type
watercolour
TitleSty Head Tarn, Borrowdale (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil and watercolour
Pencil
Watercolour
Watercolour
Brief description
Watercolour, Sty Head Tarn, Borrowdale, by John Constable, 1806
Physical description
Mountainous scene with lake in pencil and watercolour.
On the back is a rough pencil sketch of the same scenery.
Dimensions
  • Height: 12.1cm
  • Width: 27cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'E & P 1802' (Watermark on paper)
  • 'Sty Head Tearn- Borrowdale-Sunday Octr. 12 1806- Noon Great End- Scorfell- Longmell-.' (Inscribed on the back in pencil by the artist.)
Credit line
Given by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist
Historical context
'Constable's only exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1806 was No. 65 [169-1888]. In June he was at East Bergholt, as is attested by Nos. 66 and 67 [224-1888 and 346-1888]. In the autumn he paid a visit of some two months to the Lake District and made many drawings, among them Nos. 72-94 [794-1888, 348-1888, 192-1888, 812-1888, 170-1888, 185-1888, 188-1888, 184-1888, 187-1888, 178-1888, 179-1888, 177-1888, 193-1888, 183-1888, 1256-1888, 596-1888, 181-1888, 182-1888, 1257-1888, 811-1888, 349-1888].'

[G Reynolds, 1973, p. 56]
Subjects depicted
Lakes
Mountains
Place depicted
Lake District
Bibliographic references
  • Hebron, Stephen, Shields, Conal and Wilcox, Timothy, The solitude of mountains: Constable and the Lake District, Grasmere, Wordsworth Trust, 2006
  • Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 56, 61, 64, 65
Other number
83, plate 46 - Reynolds catalogue no.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
177-1888

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Record createdJuly 21, 2006
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O126278/sty-head-tarn-borrowdale-watercolour-constable-john-ra/
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