FDA-D.139-2010
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.139-2010
Object type
Identification
Title
A Lady Looking at a Drawing
Pilkington
Pilkington
Title Type
assigned by cataloguer
collection
collection
Comments
Throughout his career, Constable made a great numberof figure drawings. His attendance in the Life Room at the Royal Academy far outlasted his student years, and is recorded as late as 1820. The greatest concentration of sketches of figures occurs in 1806, when Constable was staying as a guest of various friends and relatives, first on the outskirts of London, then in the Lake District. Here some of the skills laboriously acquired at the Academy could be put to more immediate use in the informal atmosphere of the drawing room.
While Constable's London relatives are often depicted reading, this sketch of a woman examining a drawing, or possibly, with its wide margins, a print, seems to have more in common with the artistic ambience of the lakeland home of John Harden. Constable was a guest there from early September until mid-October 1806, and found an entire household devoted to artistic activity, from his host's sketching expeditions to the evening music parties, at which a Mr Worgan took his ministrations at the keyboard so seriously that he declined to play while the card games continued. In the slightly twisting pose of the elongated figure, viewed from below, it is possible to detect the influence of Fuseli, in whose drawings such exaggerations are common. Fuseli became Keeper of the Royal Academy, and thus supervisor of the life class, 1804.
While Constable's London relatives are often depicted reading, this sketch of a woman examining a drawing, or possibly, with its wide margins, a print, seems to have more in common with the artistic ambience of the lakeland home of John Harden. Constable was a guest there from early September until mid-October 1806, and found an entire household devoted to artistic activity, from his host's sketching expeditions to the evening music parties, at which a Mr Worgan took his ministrations at the keyboard so seriously that he declined to play while the card games continued. In the slightly twisting pose of the elongated figure, viewed from below, it is possible to detect the influence of Fuseli, in whose drawings such exaggerations are common. Fuseli became Keeper of the Royal Academy, and thus supervisor of the life class, 1804.
Other number
Pi 238
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 159mm
width (actual size): 111mm
width (actual size): 111mm
Materials & techniques note
Graphite on paper, on larger sheet with wash border
Production
Person
Constable, John, 1776 - 1837 (Artist)
Date
1806
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Hugh Constable;; Collection of Sir Robert Witt;; collection of Alan Pilkington; by whom bequeathed to Eton College in 1973
Exhibited: 'Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Loan exhibition of early English drawings and old master etchings and engravings', London, 1958, catalogue number 55; Colnaghi, 1958, catalogue number 55; 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 40; 'Watercolours from the Eton College Collections', Verey Gallery, Eton College, 24 November 2018 to 24 February 2019
Exhibited: 'Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Loan exhibition of early English drawings and old master etchings and engravings', London, 1958, catalogue number 55; Colnaghi, 1958, catalogue number 55; 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 40; 'Watercolours from the Eton College Collections', Verey Gallery, Eton College, 24 November 2018 to 24 February 2019
