John Constable R.A. (East Bergholt 1776-1837 London)Osmington, Dorset, with the figure of George III at Sutton Poyntz
pencil on paper
11.5 x 18.5cm (4 1/2 x 7 5/16in).注脚Provenance
Dr. H.A.C. Gregory
His sale, Sotheby's, London, 20 July 1949, lot 93
With Leggatt Brothers, London, where purchased by the late Dr. and Mrs W. Katz, and thence by descent to the present owners

Exhibited
London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Sketches and Drawings from the Collection of Dr. H.A.C. Gregory, 1949, cat. no. 37

Literature
K. Clarke, Sketches and Drawings from the Collection of Dr. H.A.C. Gregory, London, 1949, exh. cat., cat. no. 37
R.B. Beckett, 'Constable's Honeymoon', Connoisseur, CXXIX, 1952, p. 5
G. Reynolds, Catalogue of the Constable Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1973, p. 114
G. Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1996, p. 227, cat. no. 16.69

Graham Reynolds notes that this work is on a page from a larger sketchbook used by Constable in 1816. On the far hillside the drawing shows the Osmington White Horse, the figure of George III on horseback that had been carved into the hill above Osmington in 1808 to commemorate the King's regular visits to Weymouth.

Constable married Maria Bicknell in October 1816. His friend John Fisher officiated at the wedding and invited them to spend their honeymoon with him and his wife Mary (also newly-married) at the vicarage at Osmington, near Weymouth. In his letter Fisher paints a tempting picture saying 'The country here is wonderfully wild & sublime & well worth a painters visit. My house commands a singularly beautiful view: & you may study from my very windows. You shall [have] a plate of meat set by the side of yor easel without your sitting down to dinner.'

The Constables travelled first to Salisbury, then on to Southampton to stay with relatives and were with the Fishers by the middle of October 1816. They were to remain there until December, Constable making drawings and paintings of the undulating coastal landscape and Dorset shore. It is clear from later correspondence that their time at Osmington held particularly fond memories for him and Maria, but they were never to return.