Study of a Burdock

c. 1810–14 or c. 1828

Constable rarely painted studies of individual plants, which makes this sketch of a humble burdock quite unusual. Touches of white paint define the volume and texture of the plant’s curling, heart-shaped leaves. The artist even recorded the tiny holes in the leaves chewed by insects. A committed naturalist, he once advised a young painter to “never do anything without nature before you.”

Medium	oil on canvas, mounted on panel
Dimensions	Panel: 7 1/4 x 10 15/16 in. (18.4 x 27.8 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.45
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	On View

Image Caption

John Constable, Study of a Burdock, c. 1810–14 or c. 1828, oil on canvas, mounted on panel. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.45

Select Bibliography

. The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair Handbook. London: Grosvenor House. 06/1995. Pionk, Richard C. and Margaret Somers. Constable. Salmagundi Club, October 14 - November 2, 2000. New York, Salmagundi Club. 2000. 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. Parris, Leslie. "Some Recently Discovered Oil Sketches by John Constable." The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 961 (April 1983): 22023. . The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions. London: Tate Publishing. 1986. 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. Parris, Leslie. Constable: A New York Private Collection. Supplement. New York: Published privately, 1998.

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Provenance

Probably Isabel Constable, the artist’s daughter, by descent (her sale, Christie’s, London, 17 June 1892, possibly no. 240, as one of Buying Flowers; and three studies of flowers); Thomas J. Barratt (probably from 1892, d. 1914);¹ Baron Kojiro Matsukata (c. 1914–c. 1930, sold to private collection); private collection, Japan (c. 1930–1954, sold to Mizushima); Tokuzo Mizushima (1954–1983, his anon. sale, Sotheby’s, London, 2 Mar. 1983, no. 72, ill., bought in); sale Sotheby’s, London, 14 Mar. 1984, no. 103, ill.; sale, Christie’s, London 24 Apr. 1987, no. 49, ill.; sale Christie’s, London, 14 July 1994, no. 42, ill., sold to Nahum; [Peter Nahum, London, sold to Manton, 26 Jan. 1996]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1996–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007. 1. The early provenance comes from an inscription on the reverse of the panel which reads: “Sketch / by / John Constable RA / Bought at Christie’s / at the sale of Isabella Constable / Thomas J. Barratt.” In the sale catalogue of 1892, this work might be identifiable as one of three included under no. 240, although an annotation in the copy at the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, indicates that the lot was sold to “A. Smith.”