Sketch for "The Opening of Waterloo Bridge Seen from Whitehall Stairs, June 18th 1817"

c. 1819

Constable’s sketch depicts the opening of London’s Waterloo Bridge, named after the battle in which Napoleon was finally defeated by the British and their allies. This sketch, rapidly executed with thick paint, conveys the excitement of the ceremony. Cannon smoke rises above the bridge and, in the foreground, dashes of red pigment stand for soldiers, barge sails, and waving flags.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	6 1/2 x 9 1/8 in. (16.5 x 23.2 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.48
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	On View

Image Caption

John Constable, Sketch for "The Opening of Waterloo Bridge Seen from Whitehall Stairs, June 18th 1817", c. 1819, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.48

Select Bibliography

Opening Loan Exhibition. Two Hundred Years of Suffolk Art: Gainsborough to Munnings. Bury St. Edmunds, England: The Bury St. Edmunds Art Gallery, 1972. Parris, Leslie and Ian Fleming-Williams. John Constable. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Publishing, 1991. Reynolds, Graham. Constable's England. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 13-Sept. 4, 1983. 1983. Hoozee, Robert. L'opera completa di Constable. (Classici dell'arte series). Milan: Rizzoli. 1979. Reynolds, Graham. The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. 2 vol. New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 1984. Cave, Kathryn, ed. The Diary of Joseph Farington. XV (January 1818-December 1819). New Haven & London: Yale UP. 1984. Cormack, Malcolm. Constable. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1986. Leger Galleries. British Painting. May 4-June 2, 1989. London: Leger Galleries. 1989. 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 Edward Beaumont Venn, Freston Lodge, Freston, Ipswich (d. 1857); Lawrence E. Venn; sale, Sotheby’s, London, 30 Nov. 1960, no. 122, sold to Leggatt; [Leggatt Brothers Gallery, London]; private collection, by descent (until at least 1991); given to Christ’s College; Christ’s College, Cambridge (by 1995, until 1997)¹ ; private collection; [Spink, London, sold to Manton, 26 Oct. 1999]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1999–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–2007, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007. 1. The painting was offered for sale at Sotheby’s, London, 12 July 1995, no. 102, ill., but was bought in.