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THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

A MILL NEAR COLCHESTER (COPFORD MILL)

A MILL NEAR COLCHESTER (COPFORD MILL)

measurements note
15 by 19.7 cm., 5 3/4 by 7 3/4 in.

watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with scratching out and a touch of pen and brown ink on the horizon, evidence of squaring for transfer in pencil, with a rough colour wash test verso

PROVENANCE

purchased by Margaret Hand Hanlien, and thence by descent to the present owner

NOTE

Constable's watercolour of A Mill near Colchester (Copford Mill) is an important new discovery and previously unrecorded. This subject, known from a pencil sketch by the artist, a recorded watercolour and an engraving, was traditionally thought to be Stanway Mill. Recent research, however, reveals that the mill was located in the parish of Copford. Constable's dramatic view of the mill, as shown in the present watercolour, is taken from the main road. The house of the miller, John Ely, can be seen in the foreground and in the distance another mill appears on the horizon.

Windmills fascinated Constable from an early age and his youthful training as an apprentice miller gave him a specialized knowledge of mills which enabled him to draw them so convincingly. On a day of gusty winds, for example, it would be necessary for a miller to reef his sail cloths, and in the present watercolour he has depicted just such a day and has altered the sails of the mill accordingly, drawing them at sword or dagger point. His brother, Abram, is reported as having said that he had seen mills painted by many artists, 'but they won't go round; John's mills always will' (see Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, 1990, p.258).

A watercolour by Constable, almost identical to the present work, once belonging to the artist's family, but its present whereabouts unknown, is recorded by Graham Reynolds as A Mill near Colchester (Stanway Mill) (see Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1984, p.253, no.33.34, pl.890). This recorded watercolour appears to have been engraved in mezzotint by David Lucas for the appendix to English Landscape Scenery which was published in 1845. It seems that this view was included on an initiative from Lucas or perhaps Leslie or the family, rather than a suggestion by Constable. Only a few minor details differentiate the present watercolour from both the recorded picture and the mezzotint. The windmill seen on the horizon on the far right of the composition, for example, does not appear in either of the other two works. The arrangement of trees in the distance also differs and the number of birds in the sky.

Constable's two watercolours of A Mill near Colchester relate to a pencil sketch of a windmill which he drew on 27th July 1816 and which is now in Hornby Library, Liverpool City Library (see Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, 1990, no.233). The artist made this sketch whilst he was visiting an old friend at Feering, near Colchester. During this trip he also called upon a local patron, General Slater Rebow, a visit that led to the commission of a watercolour by the artist of Wivenhoe Park.

Constable made six pencil sketches during his trip to Essex, including three of windmills. One, dated 26th July 1816, was inscribed 'Stanway Mill' and traditionally it was thought that the other two sketches depicted the same mill. Ian Fleming-Williams, however, has revealed that Constable was technically incorrect in naming his 26th July sketch 'Stanway Mill' and therefore, the identity of the mill in the sketch dated 27th July is also called into question. Fleming-Williams argues that the mill in the 26th July sketch was in fact situated in Copford, the neighbouring parish to Stanway (see Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, 1990, pp.256-258). The 27th July sketch, therefore, which is clearly a preliminary study for Constable's later watercolours, also depicts Copford Mill and not Stanway Mill, as originally thought.