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John Constable
English, 1776–1837
Bow Fell, Cumberland
1807
Constable visited the Lake District for two months in 1806 on a tour sponsored by his uncle. This picture was painted in the artist’s studio later, from sketches made on the spot (one of which—the watercolor Bow Fell and Langdale Pikes—is also in the Clark’s collection. The same view appears in both works, although the watercolor features earthy brown tones rather than the greens and blues in the oil painting, with its more dramatic sky.
Image Caption
John Constable, Bow Fell, Cumberland, 1807, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.16
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
8 1/16 × 10 in. (20.4 × 25.4 cm)
Frame: 11 11/16 × 19 9/16 × 2 in. (29.7 × 49.7 × 5.1 cm)
Object Number
2007.8.16
Acquisition
Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status
Off View
Select Bibliography
. John Constable, R.A.. Colchester Public Library, 1950-1951. 1950. Camberwell Borough Council. The Constable Family: Five Generations. Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, June - September 1954; South London Art Gallery, Camberwell, October 24-November 13, 1954; subsequent tour (Sunderland, etcc), 1954-55. South London Art Gallery. 1954. . First Loan Exhibition. The Minories, Colchester; May-June 1958. 1958. Parris, Leslie and Conal Shields. Constable: The Art of Nature. Tate Gallery, London; June 7-July 4, 1971. London: Tate Publishing. 1971. Reynolds, Graham. John Constable: the Natural Painter. Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; September 1973-January 1974. Auckland : Auckland City Art Gallery. 1973. Constable, Freda. John Constable: A Biography, 17761837. Lavenham: Dalton, 1975. Kitson, Michael. "John Constable at the Tate." Burlington Magazine 118, no. 877 (April 1976): 24852. Parris, Leslie, Ian Fleming-Williams, and Conal Shields. Constable: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings. Tate Gallery, London, Feb. 18-April 25, 1976. London: Tate Gallery. 1976. Spink & Son. Octagon. 14.3. 1977:8. Hoozee, Robert. L'opera completa di Constable. (Classici dell'arte series). Milan: Rizzoli. 1979. Fleming-Williams, Ian. "The Early Constable: New Watercolours & Drawings." Connoisseur. 206. 01/1981:58-61. Hayes, John. The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough. 2 vols. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1982. Rhyne, Charles. "The Drawing of Mountains: Constable's 1806 Lake District Tour." The Lake District: A sort of national property. London: Victoria and Albert Museum. 1984:61-70. Reynolds, Graham, Charles Rhyne, and Julius Meier-Graefe. John Constable, R.A. (1776-1837): Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours, Mezzotints. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, 1988. Parris, Leslie. Constable: A New York Private Collection. New York: Published Privately, 1994. Reynolds, Graham. The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. 2 vol. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1996. Pionk, Richard C. and Margaret Somers. Constable. Salmagundi Club, October 14 - November 2, 2000. New York, Salmagundi Club. 2000. Steiner, Raymond J. "John Constable at the Salmagundi Club." Art Times. Vol. 17.4. November 2000: 9. Clarke, Jay, ed. Landscape, Innovation, and Nostalgia: The Manton Collection of British Art. Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2012. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
The artist (d. 1837); John Hugh Constable, his great-grandson, by descent (d. 1974);¹ Eileen Constable, his widow, by descent (1974–1977); [Spink, London, sold to Manton, 22 Sept. 1977]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1977–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–2007), given to the Clark, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.
1. This painting was offered for sale at Sotheby’s, London, 15 June 1960, no. 88, as A Mountain Landscape, but was bought in.