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SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM LOWER MARSH CLOSE

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM LOWER MARSH CLOSE

measurements note
16 by 23 cm., 6¼ by 9 in.

dated l.l.: 3^rd Aug^st 1820 and inscribed u.l.: Close Salisbury

grey wash and pencil, framed

PROVENANCE

A.H.Sands, his sale in these rooms, 21st January 1948, lot 35 (bt. P. & D.Colnaghi & Co.);
Sir Bruce Ingram (L.1405a)

EXHIBITED

London, Guildhall, John Constable, 15th October 1952, no.54;
Winchester College, June 1963;
Stroud, Stroud Festival Silver Jubilee Exhibition, 1971

LITERATURE

R.B.Beckett, Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings by John Constable, 1961, no.60;
Selby Whittingham, Constable and Turner at Salisbury, 1976, p.53;
Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1984, p.58 (listed twice), no.20.39 and 20.56

NOTE

Some of Constable's most sensitive and beautiful drawings are those executed during July and August 1820 on his first visit to Archdeacon Fisher at Salisbury. It was a fertile stay. In all, some twenty drawings are recorded (Reynolds. op.cit. nos. 20.15 to 20.59) covering a wide range of subjects in and around the city as well as Stonehenge, Old Sarum, Gillingham, Harnham and Downton.

The first of his drawings of the Cathedral was executed on 18th July. It showed Salisbury Cathedral from the River (Reynolds 20.20) and was formerly owned by the artist Edward Seago before being sold at Christie's, 1st March 1977, lot 55. A study of similar size, 4½ by 7¼in., done two days later formed part of Isabel Constable's bequest to the Nation and is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (619-1888). On 23rd July Constable made a further drawing from the south, now also in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (p.6-1973). Towards the end of the month he made use of a larger sketchbook with pages measuring 6½ by 9½in. and the drawing offered here belongs to that group. This is the only view of the Cathedral drawn in that size, the other larger studies being the beautiful Distant View of Salisbury from Old Sarum (Reynolds 20.58) sold in these rooms 15th March 1984 lot 91 and Harnham Bridge (Reynolds 20.55), bequeathed to the British Museum by George Salting in 1910.

The Ingram drawing, which first surfaced at a sale at Sotheby's in 1948, shows the great West End of the Cathedral seen obliquely from the south. The viewpoint is taken from beneath the shady trees in Lower Marsh Close with a group of workmen standing beside a cart beneath the high wall. To the left, two figures look up admiringly at the grand edifice which Constable brilliantly suggests by having the upper part of the spire force its way up beyond the trees. It is a drawing of the utmost delicacy and freedom. A work where the pencil lines, seeming so effortless, sketch in both the architecture and the trees, and these have then been 'dissolved' in the extraordinarily fluent application of washes. The effect, as in the great magisterial oils which were to follow, is of a sense of permanence amidst the ever transitory nature of weather and light.

The drawing was last seen in public at the Stroud Festival Exhibition in 1971. This may well account for the fact that it is recorded twice in Reynolds (op.cit.). Firstly as no.20.39, as part of Michael Ingram's collection although noted as a 'Private Collection'; and secondly as no.20.56, recorded as belonging to Sir Bruce Ingram but noted as 'Whereabouts Unknown'.