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拍品專文
Constable made a number of copies of works by Old Masters including Jacob Ruisdael and Hobbema. Jacob's Dream was a well-known picture throughout the 19th Century. It was acquired by the London dealer and collector Noel Desenfans (1744-1807) by 1802, and passed via Desenfans' protégée Francis Bourgeois (1756-1811) to the Dulwich College Picture Gallery. When he acquired it, Desenfans' Jacob's Dream was thought to be by Rembrandt, and it remained a Rembrandt until 1880 when the German art historian J.P. Richter questioned the attribution. Soon afterwards it was identified as the work of Aert (or Arent) de Gelder by Hofstede de Groot, and the signature of that artist was found on the canvas in 1946. De Gelder worked in Rembrandt's studio for at least two years when Rembrandt was in his fifties, and painted in a Rembrandtesque manner for the rest of his life.
Constable would have known the painting as a Rembrandt. Critics of the day were much struck by the 'Rembrandt' when they saw it at Dulwich, William Hazlitt calling it in 1814 'perhaps the most purely poetical work he [Rembrandt] ever produced', and Mrs Jameson declaring it 'wondrous' in 1842. Constable was among the many artists known to have visited Dulwich. It has been suggested that Jacob's Dream by Washington Allston, Constable's contemporary, was influenced by the Dulwich picture, and, later, the painter James Smetham said that 'it is always 'Jacob's Dream' which turns the scale as to whether I come to Dulwich or no'. The Dulwich Gallery was opened to Royal Academicians and students in 1815, and to the general public two years later, after teething problems with the heating system were rectified. The Academy also benefited from a scheme whereby up to six pictures at a time could be borrowed from Dulwich for the instruction of its students. These were selected by Academicians at Dulwich's annual dinners. Even before 1815 artists visited the Desenfans-Bourgeois collection: in December 1808 David Wilkie recorded that he 'went and looked at some of the old pictures collected by Sir Francis Bourgeois, and liked them much'.
Constable had a lifelong interest in Rembrandt and in his lecture The Origin of Landscape, delivered at the British Institution in Albemarle Street in 1836, called Rembrandt and Correggio the greatest of all masters of chiaroscuro. In 1824 he had borrowed a 'specimen or two' from Sir George Beaumont's collection to copy, including 'a nice rich upright one like Rembrandt', and a 'lovely little Rubens'. In a letter to his close friend John Fisher, dated 20 September 1821, Constable wrote of some studies of trees, skies and 'effects' that he had recently made, saying that he wished it could be said of him as Fuseli said of Rembrandt, that 'he followed nature in her calmest abodes and could pluck a flower on every hedge - yet he was born to cast a steadfast eye on the bolder phenomena of nature'.
The former owner of the present drawing was a practising artist and designer who became interested in English drawings and watercolours in the early 1980s. He had a particular passion for the work of John Glover, but collected interesting and sometimes unusual works by artists as various as James Seymour and David Cox's master Joseph Barber.
Constable would have known the painting as a Rembrandt. Critics of the day were much struck by the 'Rembrandt' when they saw it at Dulwich, William Hazlitt calling it in 1814 'perhaps the most purely poetical work he [Rembrandt] ever produced', and Mrs Jameson declaring it 'wondrous' in 1842. Constable was among the many artists known to have visited Dulwich. It has been suggested that Jacob's Dream by Washington Allston, Constable's contemporary, was influenced by the Dulwich picture, and, later, the painter James Smetham said that 'it is always 'Jacob's Dream' which turns the scale as to whether I come to Dulwich or no'. The Dulwich Gallery was opened to Royal Academicians and students in 1815, and to the general public two years later, after teething problems with the heating system were rectified. The Academy also benefited from a scheme whereby up to six pictures at a time could be borrowed from Dulwich for the instruction of its students. These were selected by Academicians at Dulwich's annual dinners. Even before 1815 artists visited the Desenfans-Bourgeois collection: in December 1808 David Wilkie recorded that he 'went and looked at some of the old pictures collected by Sir Francis Bourgeois, and liked them much'.
Constable had a lifelong interest in Rembrandt and in his lecture The Origin of Landscape, delivered at the British Institution in Albemarle Street in 1836, called Rembrandt and Correggio the greatest of all masters of chiaroscuro. In 1824 he had borrowed a 'specimen or two' from Sir George Beaumont's collection to copy, including 'a nice rich upright one like Rembrandt', and a 'lovely little Rubens'. In a letter to his close friend John Fisher, dated 20 September 1821, Constable wrote of some studies of trees, skies and 'effects' that he had recently made, saying that he wished it could be said of him as Fuseli said of Rembrandt, that 'he followed nature in her calmest abodes and could pluck a flower on every hedge - yet he was born to cast a steadfast eye on the bolder phenomena of nature'.
The former owner of the present drawing was a practising artist and designer who became interested in English drawings and watercolours in the early 1980s. He had a particular passion for the work of John Glover, but collected interesting and sometimes unusual works by artists as various as James Seymour and David Cox's master Joseph Barber.