John Constable R.A. (East Bergholt 1776-1837 London)Flatford Old Bridge and Bridge Cottage
pencil and grey wash on paper
15 x 19.7cm (5 7/8 x 7 3/4in).注脚Provenance
With P & D Colnaghi & Co. Ltd, London (according to a label on the reverse)
The late Dr. and Mrs W. Katz, and thence by descent to the present owners

Literature
G. Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1996, p. 187, cat. no.27.42, ill., pl. 670

Constable and his family were living in Hampstead in 1827 but in October he took the two eldest children, John Charles and Minna, to Flatford for a 12 day holiday. It appears to have been a productive few days and he completed 27 drawings during this sojourn including many studies around the Stour. Ian Fleming Williams suggests this might reflect the fact that the children wanted to play near the water or fish and he would have needed to be close by to watch them. He may indeed have been intending to paint another major work based on the Stour given the volume of detailed drawings and watercolours that he made. The present work is very closely related to a slightly larger study of the same title that Isabel Constable gave to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1888 (see: G. Reynolds, op.cit. p.187, no. 27.41, pl.669).