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Creator:
John Constable, 1776–1837
Title:

Hadleigh Castle [2001, The Paul Mellon Bequest: Treasures of a Lifetime, exhibition catalogue]

Former Title(s):

Sketch of Hadleigh Castle

Additional Title(s):

Verso: Study of Five Horned Cattle

Five Horned Cattle [1996, Reynolds, The early paintings and drawings of John Constable, catalogue raisonné]

Date:
1828 to 1829
Medium:
Oil on millboard
Dimensions:
7 7/8 × 9 7/16 inches (20 × 24 cm), Frame: 10 1/2 × 12 × 1 1/2 inches (26.7 × 30.5 × 3.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2001.2.141
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B2001.2.141FR
Subject Terms:
architecture | birds | castle | clouds | impasto | landscape | Medieval | meteorology | Norman | ocean | rocks (landforms) | Romantic | ruins | science | sky | storm | tower (building division) | wind
Associated Places:
England | Essex | Europe | Hadleigh | Hadleigh Castle | Thames | Thames Estuary | United Kingdom
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:38526
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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John Constable’s election as a full member of the Royal Academy in February 1829 came just months after the devastating death of his wife, Maria. Despairing, he wrote: “could I get afloat on a canvas of six feet, I might have a chance of being carried away from myself.” He began this oil sketch in 1828, more than a decade after visiting Hadleigh Castle in the summer of 1814 and describing it in a letter to Maria. In spite of, or perhaps fueled by, both his depression and the pressure of being a full Academician, he delivered the completed six-foot painting to the Academy in 1829. This impressive work can now be viewed in the Center’s fourth-floor galleries.

Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)
This is a preparatory sketch for the grandest of the Constables already in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames - Morning after a Stormy Night, given by Paul Mellon as part of his inaugural gift in 1977. Constable first visited Hadleigh Castle, on the northern shore of the Thames estuary, in 1814. He made a rough pencil sketch of the place at that time, but it was not until fourteen years later, looking for a scene that expressed his feelings on the recent death of his wife, that he decided to work up the composition as a large exhibition picture. The present sketch seems to have been his first elaboration upon the drawing, from which he went on to a sketch on the same scale as the final work; the latter is now in the Tate Collection, London. He showed the final work at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1829. Malcolm Warner Warner, Malcolm and John Baskett. The Paul Mellon Bequest: Treasures of a Lifetime. New Haven : Yale Center for British Art, 2001, p. 36

In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

John Constable: The Late work (Royal Academy of Arts, 2021-10-30 - 2022-02-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Cole's Journey - Atlantic Crossings (The National Gallery, London, 2018-06-13 - 2018-10-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Cole's Journey - Atlantic Crossings (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018-01-29 - 2018-05-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Art in Focus : The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Constable - The Great Landscapes (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2007-02-03 - 2007-04-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Constable - The Great Landscapes (National Gallery of Art, 2006-10-01 - 2007-01-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Constable - The Great Landscapes (Tate Britain, 2006-06-01 - 2006-08-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Masters of British Painting: John Constable (Musée du Louvre, 2002-10-08 - 2003-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Paul Mellon Bequest : Treasures of a Lifetime (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-02-17 - 2001-04-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10-20 - 1983-02-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable and his drawings, Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London, UK, 1990, pp. 228-29, fig. 213, NJ18 C74 F53 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Louis Hawes, Constable's Hadleigh Castle and British Romantic Ruin Painting, Art Bulletin, v. 65., no. 3, September, 1983, pp. 458- 459, 460, fig. 4, N11 C4 + (YCBA) Also Available online via JSTOR [YCBA]

Louis Hawes, Presences of Nature : British Landscape, 1780-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1982, p. 159, no. III.31, pl. 133, ND1354.4 H38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert Hoozee, L'opera completa di Constable, 98, Rizzoli, Milano, Italy, 1979, p. 151, no. 658, NJ18 C74 A12 +H66 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Anne Lyles, Late Constable, Royal Academy of Arts, London, p. 78, no. 13, NJ18.C74 A12 2021 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Leslie Parris, Constable, Tate Publishing, London, UK, 1991, pp. 312-12, fig, 86, NJ18 C74 P372 1991 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Leslie Parris, The Tate Gallery Constable collection : a catalogue, , Tate Britain, London, UK, 1981, pp. 131, 133, NJ18 C74 P374 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, The early paintings and drawings of John Constable, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 1996, p. 147 [v.1], 10.18, 848 [v.2], NJ18 C74 R484 1996 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, p. 201 (v.1), no. 29.3, pl. 706 (v.2), NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charles Rhyne, Constable Drawings and Watercolors in the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and the Yale Center for British Art, Part I. Authentic Works , Master Drawings, vol. 19, Master Drawings Association, Inc., 1981, p. 140, nite 2, NC1 M37 19 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sotheby's, Constable : Dedham Vale with the River Stour in Flood from the Grounds of Old Hall, East Bergholt : Auction in London / Sotheby, Sotheby's, London, p. 20, V 2762 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Basil Taylor, Constable : paintings, drawings and watercolours, , Phaidon, London, UK, 1973, pp. 206-7..., no. 120, NJ18 C74 T39 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

The British Castle : A Symbol in Stone, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2017, p. 4, 28, cat. 24, V2722 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The British Castle, A Symbol in Stone, , The Wall Street International, May 11, 2017, https://wsimag.com/art/25777-the-british-castle-a-symbol-in-stone [Website]

The Grosvenor Gallery, Winter Exhibition ( First Notice ) , Athenaeum, no. 3196, January 26, 1889, p. 122, Available Online: British Periodicals II Also Available: A88 At421 + OVERSZE (SML) [ORBIS]

William Vaughan, John Constable, Tate Publishing, London, 2015, pp. 80,83, 100, fig. 55, NJ18.C74 V28 2015 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Warner, The Paul Mellon Bequest : treasures of a lifetime, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 36, N5247 M385 P28 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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