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Dedham Vale

Oil Painting
1802 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Constable, John (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (painted)

Constable based this study on the work of another artist. He rarely did this. However, here he used Hagar and the Angel, which the French artist Claude Lorrain painted in 1646. Constable esteemed Claude as 'the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw'.

Object details

Categories
Images Online
Paintings
Object type
Oil painting
TitleDedham Vale (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on canvas
Oil Colour
Canvas
Oil Painting
Brief description
Dedham Vale by John Constable (1776-1837); oil on canvas; 1802 .
Physical description
Dedham Vale. Oil on canvas. Depicts a small river valley with trees either side. In the distance is a village with a church tower and fields with cows. In the far distance is a lake with a sailing vessel on it.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 43.5cm
  • Estimate width: 34.4cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973
Style
British School
Credit line
Given by Isabel Constable
Object history
Given by Isabel Constable, 1888
Historical context
'Constable exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1802, his entry being called 'A Landscape'; this painting has not yet been identified. He visited Windsor in May (see Nos. 33-35), and was at East Bergholt in the summer and autumn.'

[G Reynolds]
Subject depicted
Landscapes (Representations)
Place depicted
Dedham Vale
Summary
Constable based this study on the work of another artist. He rarely did this. However, here he used Hagar and the Angel, which the French artist Claude Lorrain painted in 1646. Constable esteemed Claude as 'the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw'.
Bibliographic references
  • Parris, Leslie and Fleming-Williams, Ian. Constable London : The Tate Gallery, 1991 no.2
  • Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, cat. no. 37
  • G. Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum: Catalogue of the Constable Collection, 1973, pp. 44-48
  • Evans, M., with N. Costaras and C. Richardson, John Constable. Oil Sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A, 2011, p. 40, cat. no. 2.
  • p.154 Ian Collins, ed. Masterpieces. Art and East Anglia Norwich, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2013. ISBN: 9780946009626.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
124-1888

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Record createdNovember 12, 2002
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O69881/dedham-vale-oil-painting-constable-john-ra/
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