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拍品專文
The present drawing relates to the large finished drawing Elm Trees in Old Hall Park, East Bergholt, 1817, Victoria and Albert Museum (Reynolds, op.cit., no. 17.21, pl. 20 (fig. 1)). It is an important addition to a rare group of tracing drawings, which Constable executed as preparatory works and its appearance sheds considerable light onto the means by which this impressive work was produced.
The squared up recto of the sheet is a tracing of a brush drawing made using printers' ink, painted directly onto a sheet of glass. Constable made these outline drawings using an apparatus of his own devising, adapted from a description of a similar one in a Renaissance treatise on art, the initial idea being that of Leonardo da Vinci's. Constable's account of these tracings on glass can be found in a little known perspective manual by Arthur Parsey, The Science of Vision, 1840: 'the late Mr Constable' told him that 'he had attached to the upper part of his easel a frame with a pane of glass in it; this frame was attached by two screw nuts by the two upper corners; to the four corners he attached strings, which he brought to his mouth in such a manner as to bring the centre of the glass perpendicular to his eye. On this glass, thus held and secured from shifting by fixing the screw nuts, he traced with colour the outline of his painting and of course his drawings must have been true.'
When the brushwork on the glass was wet, he would lay a sheet of paper and holding this up to the light, he would trace with a pencil the painted outlines from the glass. Often on the reverse of the pencil tracing an offprint was left. Like the view of Flatford Mill (Tate Gallery) the present drawing is squared up for transfer to a larger sheet and Constable has annotated it with a scale (lower left). By their very nature as preparatory works these type of tracings were often destroyed. Three such drawings were sold in these Rooms, 12 July 1988 and before that only four certain examples of this technique were known. Although Constable told Parsey that he first used this apparatus when studying painting in his 'native place', he continued this practice as a mature artist; the tracing of Willy Lott's House (for The Haywain) is dated 1814. For further information see I. Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, London, 1990, pp. 118-121.
The drawing is on paper made by William Elgar at Chafford Mill on the River Medway, outside the village of Fordcombe, Kent, the drawing of Willy Lott's House, Reynolds, op.cit., no. 14.61, is also watermarked 'W ELGAR/1802'.
The squared up recto of the sheet is a tracing of a brush drawing made using printers' ink, painted directly onto a sheet of glass. Constable made these outline drawings using an apparatus of his own devising, adapted from a description of a similar one in a Renaissance treatise on art, the initial idea being that of Leonardo da Vinci's. Constable's account of these tracings on glass can be found in a little known perspective manual by Arthur Parsey, The Science of Vision, 1840: 'the late Mr Constable' told him that 'he had attached to the upper part of his easel a frame with a pane of glass in it; this frame was attached by two screw nuts by the two upper corners; to the four corners he attached strings, which he brought to his mouth in such a manner as to bring the centre of the glass perpendicular to his eye. On this glass, thus held and secured from shifting by fixing the screw nuts, he traced with colour the outline of his painting and of course his drawings must have been true.'
When the brushwork on the glass was wet, he would lay a sheet of paper and holding this up to the light, he would trace with a pencil the painted outlines from the glass. Often on the reverse of the pencil tracing an offprint was left. Like the view of Flatford Mill (Tate Gallery) the present drawing is squared up for transfer to a larger sheet and Constable has annotated it with a scale (lower left). By their very nature as preparatory works these type of tracings were often destroyed. Three such drawings were sold in these Rooms, 12 July 1988 and before that only four certain examples of this technique were known. Although Constable told Parsey that he first used this apparatus when studying painting in his 'native place', he continued this practice as a mature artist; the tracing of Willy Lott's House (for The Haywain) is dated 1814. For further information see I. Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, London, 1990, pp. 118-121.
The drawing is on paper made by William Elgar at Chafford Mill on the River Medway, outside the village of Fordcombe, Kent, the drawing of Willy Lott's House, Reynolds, op.cit., no. 14.61, is also watermarked 'W ELGAR/1802'.