Dedham Church from Flatford

c. 1810

Constable painted this view of a sunset over Dedham Church from Flatford Mill, which belonged to his father. An ominous gray cloud interrupts the peach and violet light streaking the sky. Bands of color indicate fields, the river, and the riverbank, while flecks of white suggest grazing cows. The artist painted this scene on a coarse piece of canvas, clearly intending it as a study, made for reference rather than exhibition.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	4 3/16 x 7 5/8 in. (10.6 x 19.4 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.22
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	Off View

Image Caption

John Constable, Dedham Church from Flatford, c. 1810, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.22

Select Bibliography

Parris, Leslie. Constable: A New York Private Collection. New York: Published Privately, 1994. Reynolds, Graham. The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. 2 vol. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1996. Clarke, Jay, ed. Landscape, Innovation, and Nostalgia: The Manton Collection of British Art. Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2012. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

Possibly Captain Charles Golding Constable, son of the artist (d. 1879); possibly Mrs. A. M. Constable, his widow, by descent (1879–d. 1889, her sale, Christie’s, London 23 June 1890, no. 84, as Landscape and Cloud, sold to Dowdeswell); [Dowdeswell Gallery, London]; private collection, Boston (1950s–93); [Deborah Gage ( Works of Art) Ltd., London, sold to Manton, 25 Mar. 1993]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton (1993–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.