Constable's studio materials

After he died unexpectedly in 1837, the contents of Constable’s studio were divided among family and friends. These included four palettes, a wooden sketching box with brushes, chalk holder, palette knife and pigments in glass phials. There were also paint bladders, prepared canvases, easels and frames, as well as a wooden box full of bottles with colours, ‘stolen by Sinn Fein’ in 1921. Later, much of this material was sadly stolen or destroyed by fire.

Constable’s palette about 1837 Reddish hardwood, traditionally cherry wood or walnut, though not identifiable by analysis © Tate enlarge this image Constable’s metal paint box c.1837 Containing eleven paint bladders, a piece of white stone and a glass phial of blue pigment Estate of Sir Edwin A. G. Manton enlarge this image

One of the surviving palettes is exhibited in Room 9. It is covered with remains of colours such as vermilion, emerald green, chrome yellow, cobalt blue, lead white and madder, ground in a variety of mediums such as linseed oil mixed with pine resin. These can all be found on the surfaces of Constable’s later works, as translucent ‘glazes’ and crisp highlights.

His metal paint box of about 1837 is divided into seventeen compartments and contains a cork-stopped glass phial with blue pigment, a lump of white gypsum probably used for a variety of purposes including drawing and roughening paper, and various bladders with the artist’s own or commercial ready-mixed paint.

In his last years, then, we have fascinating evidence about Constable’s very personal working methods, mixing new proprietary materials with more traditional ones prepared by himself so that he could achieve very exact effects of colour and texture. He also selected the slow-drying medium of poppy oil which allowed him to rework his surfaces over extended periods of time.