John Constable, R.A.

Aquired from the artist by the engraver David Lucas (1802–81);
From whom purchased by Algernon Graves;
From whom purchased by Leggatt Brothers, c. 1917;
From whom purchased by Baron Kojiro Matsukata (1886–1950);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 24 November 2005, lot 7;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 July 2009, lot 25, where acquired by the present owner.

Tokyo, Exhibition of the Matsukata Collection, 1934, no. 22.

This painting is on a single sheet of paper, recently mounted onto a modern canvas lining, and recently cleaned and restored. The varnish is clear and even, the paint surface is stable. In raking light there are one or two tiny dents in the paper and some old creases, but no major damage is visible and the painting appears to be in overall very good condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals a line of retouching along an old vertical tear running 2 inches in length from the centre of the lower margin. A smaller restored tear measuring 1.5cm in length runs vertically from the upper margin 6 inches from the top left corner. There is one very small restored damage in the left of the bridge and very few further scattered retouchings in some of the dark tones throughout. This lot is offered in a British Neoclassical carved and gilded frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This lively plein air sketch was dated to c. 1810 by Graham Reynolds when he saw the picture in 2009. It depicts one of Constable's favourite subjects, one which he first painted in 1800 and returned to in later years. The view is taken from a wooded slope above Gun Hill Road (now known as The Coombs) looking west down the Stour Valley. Stratford St. Mary bridge can be seen centrally in the foreground, with the River Stour winding its way towards the estuary near Mistley. The tower of Dedham church rises prominently in the distance.

The River Stour which is so central to this composition makes its way eastwards from its source in Cambridgeshire for about fifty miles until it reaches the sea. It also forms the boundary between Suffolk on the left bank and Essex on the right. The lower half of the river, from Sudbury to Brantham, became navigable in the early eighteenth century, with the water controlled by a series of locks. The toll-bridge at Stratford features prominently here as in most of Constable's views from Gun Hill, and its lock with the mill beside it was the subject of his great six-foot canvas. Dedham was a market town on the Essex side of the river with a grammar school, mill and fine church whose 130 foot tower rises up so splendidly in the distance.

Constable enjoyed painting the landscape around Dedham, close to where he was born. The earliest known view of Dedham is a watercolour of 1800 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester) and his last was the celebrated Dedham Vale of 1828 (National Gallery of Scotland). Both of these were in vertical format. He seems to have gone back to the spot to paint the horizontal version of the subject regularly. In 1808 he painted The Valley of the Stour with Dedham in the distance (Victoria & Albert Museum), which belonged to his son Lionel. The present sketch dffers slightly from this in that it is taken from a slightly lower vantage point and concentrates on the view down the meandering river to the sea beyond. In 1984 Professor Charles Rhyne discovered that Constable started to paint a six-foot picture of Dedham from Gun Hill but abandoned it and later painted over it the full-size sketch for The White Horse (National Gallery of Art, Washington).

According to a Leggatt label on the reverse of the frame, the picture belonged to David Lucas, Constable's favourite engraver and a loyal and devoted friend, who produced the great set of mezzotints entitled English Landscape. It is not known when he acquired any of the works by Constable which he owned, some of which passed to H.S. Theobald and appeared in a sale in 1910. The dealers Leggatt Brothers had a close link with the Constable family, and also knew Lucas's descendants – Ernest Leggatt wrote the introduction to the exhibition of the complete works of Lucas held by Gooden & Fox in 1903. The picture was later acquired by Kojiro Matsukata, president of Kawasaki Dockyard and a remarkable collector who invested his fortune between 1916 and 1923 in acquiring an enormous collection of western paintings, sculpture and works of art which later became the core of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. His great collection included several other sketches by Constable.