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Creator:
John Constable, 1776–1837
Title:

Half-size Sketch for The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (“Whitehall Stairs, June 18, 1817”)

Former Title(s):

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Waterloo Bridge from Whitehall Stairs

Whitehall stairs, June 18th, 1817 [1832, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]

Date:
1829 to 1831
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
24 × 39 inches (61 × 99.1 cm), Frame: 31 5/8 × 48 1/2 × 3 inches (80.3 × 123.2 × 7.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.44
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1977.14.44FR
Subject Terms:
balconies | barges (ceremonial watercraft) | boats | bridge (built work) | buildings | celebration | ceremony | cityscape | costume | genre subject | guards (security) | houses | opening (event) | people | procession | river | soldiers | uniforms
Associated Places:
England | Greater London | London | Thames | United Kingdom | Waterloo Bridge
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:399
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In 1817, on the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, John Constable likely witnessed the opening of the new bridge in London named to commemorate this battle. He planned a painting representing the event with the Prince Regent and his entourage waiting to board the royal barge in the foreground. The finished painting, one of Constable’s “six-footers,” was not exhibited until thirteen years later. He created this half-scale sketch sometime in the intervening period while planning the composition. It is possible that this sketch was used as a model for a mezzotint in Constable’s great publication of prints after his work titled English Landscape Scenery. In the end, however, he decided that this urban cityscape did not fit well in a publication devoted to rural views, and he replaced it with a view of a farmyard.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Created by John Constable (1776-1837), the artist; probably purchased by Samuel Archbutt (1781-1852), at Foster and Sons, London, England, May 15-16, 1838 (lot 42, ‘Two -- Waterloo Bridge, and Brighton’), in "Finished works, studies and sketches of John Constable" [a]; purchased by Theobald? at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, England, April 13, 1839 (lot 115, ‘The Embarkation of George IV top open Waterloo Bridge, a grand work’), in “Very important gallery of capital pictures…of Samuel Archbutt, Esq.” [b]; . . . ; acquired by George Richards Burnett, South Lodge, Enfield [1], by 1872; purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, England, March 16, 1872 (lot 121, ‘Opening of Waterloo Bridge’), in "Choice collection of modern pictures and water-colour drawings, and a few pictures by old masters" [c]; purchased by Jonathan Nield (1790-1887), Dunster House, Rochdale, Lancashire, England, May 8, 1872; purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons [2] at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, May 3, 1879 (lot 14, ‘The Thames, Westminster’), in "Modern Pictures and Sculpture" [d]; purchased by Edward North Buxton? (1840-1924); . . . ; entered private European collection (Groult?) just before 1900; Camille Groult (1832-1908), Paris, France; by descent to Pierre Bordeaux-Groult (1916-2007); purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd.; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907-1999), February 1970; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, December 1977 [e].

Notes:
[1] Later Steyning, Sussex.
[2] Old Thomas Agnew & Sons Bond Street label not issued before 1876.

Citations:
[a] Foster & Sons. May 15-16, 1838. Finished works, studies and sketches, of John Constable. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7886_ASC-15074
[b] Christie, Manson & Woods. April 13, 1839. Very important gallery of capital pictures…of Samuel Archbutt, Esq. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7886_ASC-15376
[c] Christie, Manson & Woods. March 16, 1872. Modern pictures and water-colour drawings, and a few pictures by old masters. The property of George R. Burnett, Esq. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7886_ASC-33001
[d] Christie, Manson & Woods. May 3, 1879. Modern pictures and sculpture of Jonathan Nield. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7886_ASC-39281
[e] Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 1:213, no. 29.63, pl. 762.

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

Panoramic River - The Hudson and the Thames (Hudson River Museum, 2013-02-02 - 2013-05-26) [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]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Ferrara Galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art, 2001-02-25 - 2001-05-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1999-10-22 - 2000-01-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Canaletto to Constable: Paintings of Town and Country from the Yale Center for British Art (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1998-02-08 - 1998-04-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Landscape Exhibition (Japan) (Mie Prefectural Art Museum, 1993-04-10 - 1993-05-09) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Landscape Exhibition (Japan) (Daimaru Museum of Art, 1993-03-10 - 1993-03-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Landscape Exhibition (Japan) (Hiroshima Museum of Art, 1993-01-23 - 1993-03-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Landscape Exhibition (Japan) (Koriyama City Museum of Art, 1992-11-21 - 1993-01-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Landscape Exhibition (Japan) (Ohita Prefectural Art Hall, 1992-10-24 - 1992-11-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Landscape Exhibition (Japan) (Isetan Museum of Art, 1992-09-17 - 1992-10-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

John Constable (Tate) (Tate Britain, 1991-06-13 - 1991-09-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

John Constable (The Yomiuri Shimbun, 1986-01-30 - 1986-06-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Constable's England (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983-04-13 - 1983-09-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Sir Geoffrey Agnew, Yale's 1700 Mellon Pictures, The Times (London), , April 28, 1977, p. 9, Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Canaletto to Constable : paintings of town and country from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 1998, pp. 17, 19, 111, pl. 43, ND1354.4 Y25 1998 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Catalogue of the Constable collection, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, UK, 1973, p. 123, NJ18 C74 R495 1973 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie's sale catalogue : Modern pictures and sculpture of Jonathan Nield, of Dunster House, Rochdale : 3 May 1879, Christie's, London, 3 May 1879, p. 6, lot 71, X348 C46 I.1879/5/3 Haas Arts Special Collections (LSF) Also available online at Art Sales Catalogues Online

Christie's sale catalogue : Modern pictures and water-colour drawings, and a few pictures by old masters, the property of George R. Burnett, Esq. : 16 March 1872, Christie's, London, 16 March 1872, p. 13, lot 121, X348 C46 I.1872/3/16 Haas Arts Special Collections (LSF) Also available online at Art Sales Catalogues Online

Christie's sale catalogue : Very important gallery of capital pictures, (principally of the English school) of Samuel Archbutt, Esq : 13 April 1839, Christie's, London, 13 April 1839, p. 8, lot 115, Art Sales Catalogues Online [ORBIS]

Constable : A New York private collection, New York, 1994, p. 69, fig. 19, NJ18 .C74 P3752 1994 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 64-65, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Constable, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK & New York, NY, 1986, pp. 216-7, pl. 205, NJ18 C74 C75 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Eikoku fukeiga ten = British landscape paintings from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Tenrankai Katarogu Iinkai, Tokyo, 1992, pp. 74-5, 161, no. 27, ND1354.4 .E5 1992 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Foster and Sons sale catalogue : Finished works, studies and sketches of John Constable, Esq., R. A. deceased : 15 May 1838, Foster and Sons, London, 1838, p. 9, lot 42, Available online at Art Sales Catalogues Online

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 8, ND466 G67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert Hoozee, L'opera completa di Constable, 98, Rizzoli, Milano, Italy, 1979, p. 142, no. 546, NJ18 C74 A12 +H66 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charles Robert Leslie, Memoirs of the life of John Constable composed chiefly of his letters, Phaidon Press, London, UK, 1951, pp. 417..., NJ18 C74 L47 1951 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charles Robert Leslie, Memoirs of the life of John Constable, R.A., The Medici Society, Ltd., London, UK, 1937, pp. xii..., pl. 132, NJ18 C74 L47 1937 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Anne Lyles, Constable : the great landscapes, , Tate Publishing, London, UK, 2006, pp. 59, 188, figs. 36 (detail) and 66, NJ18 C74 C77 2006 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Anne Lyles, Late Constable, Royal Academy of Arts, London, p. 91, no. 24, NJ18.C74 A12 2021 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Leslie Parris, Constable : paintings, watercolours & drawings, , Tate Publishing, London, UK, 1976, pp. 167-8, NJ18 C74 P37 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Leslie Parris, Constable, Tate Publishing, London, UK, 1991, pp. 204,209..., No, 212, pl.212 & fig.178, NJ18 C74 P372 1991 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, Constable at Work, Apollo, vol. 96, no. 125, July 1972, pp. 15-17, 18, pl. I, N1 A54 96:1 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, Constable's England, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, 1983, pp. 154-55, No. 56, NJ18 C74 R496 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, Constable, the natural painter, Panther, St. Albans, UK, 1976, pp. 121-22, NJ18 C74 R48 1976 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, p. 213 (v.1), no. 29.63, pl. 762 (v.2), NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Shirley, John Constable, R. A., Medical Society, London, 1944, p. 25, no. 132, pl. 132, NJ18 C74 S55 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Basil Taylor, Constable : paintings, drawings and watercolours, , Phaidon, London, UK, 1973, pp. 201-2..., NJ18 C74 T39 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

The panoramic river : the Hudson and the Thames, , Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, N.Y., 2013, pp. 48, 49, 163, fig. 22, ND2880 .P355 2013 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Yomiuri Shimbun, John Constable, The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 109, 143, 160, no. 62, NJ18 .C74 R47 +Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Herbert W. Tompkins, Constable's Drawings and Sketches, Fortnightly Review, v. 95, no. 567, March 1914, p. 556, A88 F778 (SML) [ORBIS]

William Vaughan, John Constable, Tate Publishing, London, 2015, pp. 57-59, 100, fig. 41, NJ18.C74 V28 2015 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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