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John Constable
English, 1776–1837
The Wheat Field
1816
“I live almost wholly in the fields and see nobody but the harvest men,” wrote Constable to his fiancée in August 1815. That summer, working primarily outdoors, he painted The Wheat Field, a view across a valley in his native Suffolk. Plowmen cut down the golden wheat, reapers bundle the stalks, and gleaners collect leftover grains, while a boy and his dog guard lunch. The figures seem to be a natural part of the landscape, captured at a specific moment in time. Yet the artist carefully organized each element of the composition to craft an idyllic harvest scene.
Image Caption
John Constable, The Wheat Field, 1816, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.27
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
21 1/2 × 30 3/4 in. (54.6 × 78.1 cm)
Frame: 30 5/8 × 39 3/4 × 2 7/8 in. (77.8 × 101 × 7.3 cm)
Object Number
2007.8.27
Acquisition
Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status
Off View
Select Bibliography
Royal Academy of Arts. Annual Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. London: Printed by W. Clowes, 1816. The British Institution. Catalogue of the Works of British Artists Placed in the Gallery of the British Institution, Pall Mall, for Exhibition and Sale. Exhibition catalogue. London: The British Institution, 1817. Parris, Leslie and Conal Shields. Constable: The Art of Nature. Tate Gallery, London; June 7-July 4, 1971. London: Tate Publishing. 1971. Rosenthal, Michael. Constable: The Painter and his Landscape. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1983. Rosenthal, Michael. Constable. London: Thames & Hudson. 1987. Parris, Leslie. "Images of Constable." The Antique Collector. v. 62, no. 6. 06/1991:88-93. Parris, Leslie. Constable: Pictures from the Exhibition. London: Tate Publishing. 1991. Parris, Leslie and Ian Fleming-Williams. John Constable. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Publishing, 1991. Ivy, Judy Crosby. Constable and the Critics, 1802-1837. Boydell Press. 1991. Leggatt, Charles, ed. Constable, a Master Draughtsman. Exhibition catalogue. Introduction by Ian Fleming-Williams. London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1994. Reynolds, Graham. The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. 2 vol. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1996. . "Tercentennial Exhibit Showcases British Masterpieces". Yale Bulletin & Calendar. 09/21/2001. Warner, Malcolm and Robyn Asleson. Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Grand Palais. Constable: Le Choix de Lecian Freud. Galeries nationales du grand palais, Paris, October 7, 2002-January 13, 2003. Paris : Réunion des musées nationaux. 2002. Gray, Anne and John Gage. Constable: Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, March 3-June 12, 2006; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, July 5-October 8, 2006.. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia. 2006. Lyles, Anne, ed. Constable's Great Landscapes: The Six-Foot Paintings. Tate Britain, London, June 1-August 28, 2006; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., October 1-December 31, 2006; Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino, February 3-April 29, 2007. London: Tate Publishing. 2006. 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
Cheston family (possibly from the late nineteenth century); Morris Cheston, Jr., Philadelphia, by descent (until 1997);¹ [Agnew’s, London, sold through Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, to Curtis Galleries, 1997]; [Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, 1997–2000, sold through Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, to Manton, 12 Dec. 2000]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (2000–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.
1. Morris Cheston may not have held sole ownership; his son-in-law, Raul Betancourt, Jr., also seems to have represented the family interests at times.