'Shipping in the Thames or Medway', John Constable

Artwork details

Artist

John Constable (1776‑1837)

Title

Shipping in the Thames or Medway

Date 1803

MediumGraphite and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 97 x 168 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996

Reference

T08120

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Exhibition catalogue text

Catalogue entry from British Watercolours from the Oppé Collection

JOHN CONSTABLE
1776-1837

79a Shipping in the Thames or Medway 1803

Grey wash over pencil on laid paper 9.7 x 16.8 (3 7/8 x 6 5/8)

T08120

79b Shipping in the Thames or Medway 1803

Grey wash over pencil on laid paper 9.8 x 16.7 (3 7/8 x 6 5/8); verso: another sketch of shipping, pencil, inscribed '5'

T08121

'Had I accepted the situation offered it would have been a death blow to all my prospects of perfection in the Art I love.' In a letter of 29 May 1802 (Beckett 1964, pp.31-2), Constable expressed his relief at having recently turned down the post of drawing master at the Royal Military Academy in Great Marlow. The decision seems to have prompted him, as he wrote in the same letter, to think 'more seriously on my profession than at any time of my life'. He had now become convinced 'of the truth of Sir Joshua Reynolds's observation that "there is no easy way of becoming a good painter" ... only ... by long contemplation and incessant labour'. It remained a cherished conviction… (read more)