Lot 120 JOHN CONSTABLE RA (EAST BERGHOLT 1776 - 1837 HAMPSTEAD)
Title: Sketch - Cottage in the Wood (1832)
Medium: Oil on Paper (Envelope) Laid on Millboard
Signature: Inscribed on Label Verso
Provenance: These Rooms, Gentleman's Library: Includes the Beauvoir Collection and
the Late Dr. Kevin Moynihan's Irish Art Collection, 7 November 2023, Lot 240,
Where acquired by the Family of the Present Owner
Notes: The Late Conal Shields and Graham Reynolds came across four other works in their studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum by Constable that were painted on envelope. Observe a pinhole at the centre - top of the work to pin the paper into place onto the paint box when painting en plein air. Another work of this nature was discovered by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2013, found glued behind one of the artist's paintings, containing a pinhole.
Unframed
We are Grateful to the Late Conal Shields for authenticating this work on the basis of a physical inspection in 2022
Depicting a cottage set within a dense woodland and overshadowed by trees in full leaf, this oil sketch was likely done out of doors, as evidenced by a pinhole at the top centre of the sheet of paper, used by the artist to secure the paper to a drawing board. The foreground, which includes a stretch of river, is animated by bands of light and shade, while the fence around the cottage is picked out with neat brushstrokes. The vertical trunks of two trees on the right contrast with gently sloping ground on the left. Only the gable wall of the cottage is visible, with smoke rising from the chimney. A further important part of the content is his quite typical, deft inclusion of a touch of red, visible on the roof of the cottage, acting as a ploy to pull the composition together and give it a focal point. It is a peaceful scene, with white cumulus clouds massed in the sky, reflecting Constable’s interest in observing natural forms, such as water, clouds and trees, and recording specific weather conditions.
In the distance, between the trees, can be seen a hillside, and below that, there are more cottages, with just their red roofs visible. Although a small sketch, the composition is a strong ‘Z’, formed by the horizontal band in the foreground and the diagonal of sky between the trees. The scene is most likely Dedham Vale, the subject of many of Constable’s paintings and sketches, such as The Mill Stream in the Tate collection, and his ink sketch Trees and a stretch of water on the River Stour, in the V & A. The cottage depicted may well be Willy Lott’s cottage on the banks of the Stour,near Flatford Mill. Constable’s nickname for The Haywain was ‘old Billy Lott’s House’ and the building appears in many of the artist’s works; he painted it both from life and from memory. The house held a special appeal, as the home of a tenant farmer who lived there for eighty years and never travelled far from Flatford, so epitomising for Constable the sense of continuity he valued in rural life. The visual device of highlighting a cottage gable against a darker woodland background was often used by the artist, as in his 1819 The White Horse, in the Frick Collection.
Although nowadays one of Britain’s best-known artists, Constable sold relatively few paintings during his lifetime. The majority of his works are in public collections such as the V & A, Ashmolean, British Museum, Royal Academy, Yale and Tate Gallery, and relatively few of his paintings appear on the open market. In the 1970s, along with Leslie Parris, the art historian Conal Shields was responsible for bringing Constable back to the attention of a wide public, curating several exhibitions at the Tate, from 1976 through to the 1990s. Shields’ most recent contribution to Constable studies is his catalogue of the 2020 exhibition at the Teylers Museum in the Netherlands.
Dr. Peter Murray, May 2026
€30000 - 50000
19 x 16.5cm (approx.)
Wednesday 10th June 2026
15:39:10
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A work catalogued with the name(s) or recognised designation of an artist, without any qualification, is, in our opinion, a work by the artist in other cases, the following expressions, with the following meanings are used:
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