JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A.
(1776-1837)
 

Fir Trees at Hampstead

c.1833

black lead on paper

73.4 x 49.3 cm

P.276

Constable drew this study of trees over four sheets of paper. It was possibly exhibited at the R.A. in 1834, no.548, as Study of trees made in the grounds of Charles Holford, Esq., at Hampstead, which is known to have been a pencil drawing of a similar size. If this were shown at the Academy in 1834, it must have been drawn sometime in 1833, perhaps July, when Constable made a stylistically similar study of trees at West End Fields.

Constable had known Charles Holford and his wife since 1824 and Holford appears to have been one of the organisers of some  lectures that Constable gave to the Hampstead Literary and Scientific Society.

From 1819 to 1826, the Constables rented a house at Hampstead every summer, bar one, and moved to Well Walk in 1827. Hampstead had become a popular residence for writers and artists in the early 19^th century as a rural neighbourhood in close proximity to London. During the early years at Hampstead, Constable made a number of tree studies on the Heath.

EJ/CB

PROVENANCE: Gilbert Davis; P&D Colnaghi Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1959.

EXHIBITIONS: London, R.A., 1834, no.548 ?; Old Master Drawings, London, R.A., 1953, no.481; J. Constable 1776-1837, Manchester, Manchester Art Gallery 1956, no.93;  Primitives to Picasso, London, R.A., 1962, no.385; Watercolours and Drawings from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Bedford, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1962, no.31; English Watercolours form the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, Reading, Reading Art Gallery, 1965, no.4; Watercolours from Bedford, Norwich, Castle Museum, no.7; Bicentenary Exhibition, London, R.A., 1968/9, no.205; Constable Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, London, Tate Gallery, 1976, no.306; Constable, London, Tate Gallery, 1991, no.332.

REFERENCES: C. Rhyne, ‘Fresh Light on John Constable’, Apollo, LXXXVII, 1968, p.230, n.11; R. Whitlock, Historic Forests of England , 1979; G. Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 2 vols., 1984, I, p.257, no.34.3, illus. p.914.