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Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Water-meadows near Salisbury

Oil Painting
1820 or 1829 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Constable, John (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Salisbury (painted)

Constable painted this fresh and atmospheric view in the grounds of the home of John Fisher. He was a canon of Salisbury Cathedral and Constable's closest friend. At the Royal Academy critics condemned the painting as 'a nasty green thing', and the artist withdrew it.

Object details

Category
Paintings
Object type
Oil painting
TitleWater-meadows near Salisbury (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on canvas
Oil Paint
Canvas
Oil Painting
Brief description
Oil painting entitled 'Water-meadows near Salisbury' by Constable. Great Britain, 1820s.
Physical description
Landscape view with trees, reflected in the water.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 45.7cm
  • Estimate width: 55.3cm
  • Framed height: 595mm
  • Framed width: 700mm
  • Framed depth: 60mm
  • Frame height: 59.6cm (Note: Taken from frame)
  • Frame width: 70.1 (Note: Taken from frame)
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973
Style
British School
Credit line
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Object history
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Historical context
'Constable was elected R.A. on 10 February 1829. He exhibited 'Hadleigh Castle' (now in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon; see No. 127 [D.234-1888] in this Catalogue) and a landscape of a "rich cottage". He paid his last two visits to Fisher at Salisbury, in July and in November. His preparations for English Landscape Scenery got under way in this year: the earliest letter on the subject to Lucas printed by Shirley (S.: L., p. 20) is dated 28 August 1829.'

[G Reynolds, 1973, p.190]
Subject depicted
Landscape
Place depicted
Salisbury
Summary
Constable painted this fresh and atmospheric view in the grounds of the home of John Fisher. He was a canon of Salisbury Cathedral and Constable's closest friend. At the Royal Academy critics condemned the painting as 'a nasty green thing', and the artist withdrew it.
Associated object
Bibliographic references
  • Owens, Susan, The Art of Drawing British Masters and Methods since 1600, V&A Publishing, London, 2013, p. 87, fig. 65
  • Parris, Leslie and Fleming-Williams, Ian. Constable London : The Tate Gallery, 1991 no.135
  • Morris, Edward, ed. Constable's Clouds: Paintings and Cloud Studies by John Constable , Edinburgh : National Galleries of Scotland ; Liverpool : National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, c2000. 176 p. : ill. (some col.). ISBN 1903278058 (paperback), 1903278066 (hardback).
  • Graham Reynolds, Catalogue of the Constable Collection, London: HMSO, 1973, cat. no. 321
  • Evans, M., with N. Costaras and C. Richardson, John Constable. Oil Sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A, 2011, p. 31, fig. 27.
  • Timothy Wilcox, Constable and Salisbury. The Soul of Landscape London: Scala Publishers Ltd, 2011. ISBN: 978 1 85759 678 6.
  • Ulrich Bischoff, Luc Tuymans & Andreas Dehmer, Constable, Delacroix, Friedrich, Goya: Shock to the senses. Dresden :Staatliche kunstsammlungen ;Sandstein,2013. 9783954980277
Other number
321, plate 232 - Reynolds catalogue no.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
FA.38[O]

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Record createdMay 8, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80569/water-meadows-near-salisbury-oil-painting-constable-john-ra/
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