Houses on a Riverbank (c.1794)

Constable, John (1776-1837)

Houses on a Riverbank
c.1794
Blue and grey wash over graphite, 14.1 x 17.6 cm
Princeton University Art MuseumPrinceton

The career of John Constable, one of Britain’s most iconic landscape painters, is represented here in its early stage. This earlier work (on paper with a dated watermark of 1794) was drawn when the artist was a teenager living with his parents in East Bergholt, Suffolk. Before receiving formal training, Constable would wander the local countryside making detailed sketches. In this quiet and peaceful study of houses on a riverbank, Constable’s interest in atmospheric effects is already evident in the faint wash used to depict the sky and clouds and in the loosely sketched reflections on the water. (PUAM)