Although it was once suggested that this drawing may have been either a self-portrait or a portrait of the artist’s brother, Abram, it is now considered more likely to depict a member of the Cobbold family. John Cobbold (1746–1835) was a prosperous brewer and banker from Ipswich in Suffolk. He had a very large family, fathering fifteen children with his first wife and a further seven with his second. Surviving pencil drawings in the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and in a small number of private collections, indicate that Constable was with the family on the 11
th and 12
th June 1806.
1 The present work can be dated to the same period and the late Ian Fleming-Williams suggested that it may depict Robert Knipe Cobbold, John Cobbold’s eldest son from his second marriage.
21. Op. cit., nos. 06.14-06.21
2. Ibid, p. 75, no. 06.24