Waterloo Bridge Seen from Whitehall Stairs

c. 1829

Constable made several studies for a seven-foot canvas commemorating the opening of Waterloo Bridge in London. The distant vantage point in this sketch allowed the artist to include ceremonial river barges and spectators crowding the balconies of the building on the left. The new bridge, named after the battle in which British and allied forces defeated Napoleon, is barely visible on the right; enveloped in light, it blends into the Thames and the buildings behind it.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	24 x 39 in. (61 x 99 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.49
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	On View

Image Caption

John Constable, Waterloo Bridge Seen from Whitehall Stairs, c. 1829, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.49

Select Bibliography

Wordsworth, Jonathan, Michael C. Jaye, and Robert Woof. Williams Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism. New York Public Library, October 1987-January 1988; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, January-March 1988; Chicago Historical Society, April-June 1988. 1988. Leger Galleries. British Painting. May 4-June 2, 1989. London: Leger Galleries. 1989. Pionk, Richard C. and Margaret Somers. Constable. Salmagundi Club, October 14 - November 2, 2000. New York, Salmagundi Club. 2000. Parris, Leslie. Constable: A New York Private Collection. New York: Published Privately, 1994. 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. Posnett, David, introd. Leger: A Century of Art Dealing, 1892-1992. London: The Leger Galleries, 1992. Parris, Leslie and Ian Fleming-Williams. John Constable. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Publishing, 1991. 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.

Read more- Collapse
EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

[Leggatt’s, London, sold to Hardy, c. 1940]; Lee Hardy; John Hardy, his son, by descent (until 1988, sold to Leger)¹; [Leger Galleries, sold to Manton, 2 Mar. 1989]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton, New York (1989–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark, as Sketch for “The Opening of Waterloo Bridge seen from Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817”); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007. 1. The painting was offered for sale at Sotheby’s, London, 29 Nov. 1978, no. 101, but was bought in.