Lot Essay
Despite its small size this is perhaps the summation of Constable's depictions of Salisbury Cathedral. Although Day dates it to as early as about 1821, Reynolds includes it among works of 1836, at the time when David Lucas was working on his mezzotint (see fig. 1) of Constable's oil painting of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows of 1831 (on loan to the National Gallery, London; Reynolds, op.cit., pp. 225-7 no. 31.1, pl. 792, illustrated in colour); Lucas had begun work in 1835 and publication was planned for 1837, but Constable's death frustrated this and it eventually appeared in 1848. Either way, as Reynolds argues, the drawing would seem to date from after about 1828, when Constable began to exploit the expressive powers of sepia wash.
Little has been written about Constable's late sepia landscapes, (see I. Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, London, 1990, pp. 278-309), but recently more of these drawings have come to light, and we now know that the theoretical works of Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) were an important source for him. Constable had copied Cozens's texts Various species of Landscape and The New Method, while staying at Coleorton with Sir George Beaumont. In his texts Cozens outlined his technique of using 'blot' drawings to develop compositional studies in a more imaginative way. Unlike other drawings of this kind however, this present drawing has considerable underdrawing, executed in a distinct grainy pencil. As mentioned above, Reynolds includes this view of Salisbury in his catalogue raisonné, among works of 1836, when Constable was working on the Lucas mezzotints. If it was executed at this time, the drawing would have been drawn from memory, but it is tempting to think that it was executed no later than the occasion of his last visit to Salisbury in November 1829, on one of those occasions which Fleming-Williams refers to (op.cit., p.232) when Constable 'prowled along the river-banks [looking] for an aspect that would compose well.'
Little has been written about Constable's late sepia landscapes, (see I. Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, London, 1990, pp. 278-309), but recently more of these drawings have come to light, and we now know that the theoretical works of Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) were an important source for him. Constable had copied Cozens's texts Various species of Landscape and The New Method, while staying at Coleorton with Sir George Beaumont. In his texts Cozens outlined his technique of using 'blot' drawings to develop compositional studies in a more imaginative way. Unlike other drawings of this kind however, this present drawing has considerable underdrawing, executed in a distinct grainy pencil. As mentioned above, Reynolds includes this view of Salisbury in his catalogue raisonné, among works of 1836, when Constable was working on the Lucas mezzotints. If it was executed at this time, the drawing would have been drawn from memory, but it is tempting to think that it was executed no later than the occasion of his last visit to Salisbury in November 1829, on one of those occasions which Fleming-Williams refers to (op.cit., p.232) when Constable 'prowled along the river-banks [looking] for an aspect that would compose well.'