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Study of Tree Trunks

Oil Painting
ca. 1821 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Constable, John (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (painted)

This outdoor sketch brilliantly captures the effect of broken sunlight falling through foliage. In May 1819 Constable expressed his delight in such subjects: 'Every tree seems full of blossom of some kind & the surface of the ground seems quite lovely'. The figure at the right may be the artist's wife, with one of their children.

Object details

Categories
Images Online
Paintings
Object type
Oil painting
TitleStudy of Tree Trunks (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on paper
Oil Paint
Paper
Oil Painting
Brief description
Study of Tree Trunks by John Constable (British, 1776-1837); oil on canvas; Britain; 19th century.
Physical description
View from above of a large tree trunk and a woman with a bonnet, possibly holding a child.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 24.8cm
  • Estimate width: 29.2cm
  • Frame height: 45.2cm (Note: Taken from frame)
  • Frame width: 55.3cm (Note: Taken from frame)
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973
Style
British School
Gallery label
Label [Author unknown]
This study is no more than a fragment of a scene, a study of the way in which sunlight filters through the leaves of a tree and illuminates its trunk. The leaves are painted with a yellow that reflects the brilliance of the sun and the tree trunk is painted with smooth strokes that blend into one another and suggest the sheen on the bark of the tree. The composition is deliberately oblique and the spectator's eye is led out to the right of the composition where a girl is portrayed in the sun at the bottom of the bank.
Credit line
Given by Isabel Constable
Object history
Given by Isabel Constable, 1888
Historical context
The chief of Constable's four exhibits in 1821 was 'Landscape: Noon' ('The Hay Wain') (National Gallery No. 1207; for the full-scale sketch see No. 209 [987-1900] in this Catalogue). His third child, Charles Golding Constable, was born on 29 March. He accompanied Archdeacon John Fisher on his visitation of Berkshire in June, took No. 2 Lower Terrace, Hampstead, for his family during the summer and autumn and paid a visit to Fisher at Salisbury in November.

[G Reynolds, 1973, p. 135]
Subjects depicted
Landscape
Trees
Summary
This outdoor sketch brilliantly captures the effect of broken sunlight falling through foliage. In May 1819 Constable expressed his delight in such subjects: 'Every tree seems full of blossom of some kind & the surface of the ground seems quite lovely'. The figure at the right may be the artist's wife, with one of their children.
Bibliographic references
  • Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 135, 145-147
  • 100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum.London: V&A, 1985, p.108
  • Gayford, Martin and Anne Lyles, Constable portraits: the painter and his circle, London, National Portrait Gallery, 2009.
Other number
234, plate 178 - Reynolds catalogue no.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
323-1888

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O14900/study-of-tree-trunks-oil-painting-constable-john-ra/
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