Study of a female nude, seen from behind

Attending the Royal Academy Schools from 1799, aged 23, Constable was noted for his diligence, the diarist Farington recording on 16 November 1807 that 'he attends the life class every evening' (Farington, VIII, p. 3142), and Leslie also commented that 'I have seen no studies made by Constable at the Academy of the antique, but many chalk drawings and oil paintings from the living model, all of which have great breadth of light and shade' (C.R. Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, R.A., ed. A Shirley, London, 1937, p. 13).

There are comparable life-drawings from Constable's time at the Academy Schools in the Colchester Museum, the Courtauld Institute (Witt Collection) and the Victoria & Albert Museum.