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The valley of the Stour, with Langham Church in the distance

Watercolour
1800 (drawn)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A watercolour, showing a valley sloping away on the right and a hill with trees and shrubs in the foreground. Three cows and a shepherd are seated on the hill, and a church can be seen in the distance.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe valley of the Stour, with Langham Church in the distance (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Pen and watercolour
Brief description
Watercolour by John Constable entitled 'The valley of the Stour, with Langham Church in the distance'. Great Britain, 1800.
Physical description
A watercolour, showing a valley sloping away on the right and a hill with trees and shrubs in the foreground. Three cows and a shepherd are seated on the hill, and a church can be seen in the distance.
Dimensions
  • Height: 346mm
  • Width: 533mm
  • Height: 13 5/8in
  • Width: 21in
Historical context
Constable had come to London in February 1799, with a letter of introduction from Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, the Quaker philanthropist, to Joseph Farington. (The date 1798 which has previously been accepted for this journey was derived from entries published under that year in the printed edition of Farington's Diary (Greig, Vol. I, p. 229); but they are dated 1799 in the original MS.) He entered the Academy Schools as a probationer in March 1799, and was enrolled as a student on 19 February 1800. In the summer of 1800 he stayed by himself sketching in Helmingham Park, the grounds of a seat of the Earl of Dysart.

[G Reynolds]
Production
Appears in the Reynolds catalogue with the no. 16A.
Subject depicted
Bibliographic reference
G. Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum: Catalogue of the Constable Collection, 1973, pp. 37-39.
Collection
Accession number
P.25-1970

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Record createdMay 11, 2009
Record URL
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