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Inscribed under the relining: John Constable Pinxit 1796, oil on canvas, 45.5 by 55 cm.; 18 by 21 1/2 in. The earliest known dated painting by Constable, this work reveals the widespread influences brought to bear on the young artist by both English and foreign painters. In a letter to his friend John Thomas Smith, written on 9th November 1796, Constable himself described it as "a small moonlight in the manner of Cranch" (see Beckett, op. cit.). Further correspondence indicates that Cranch's work, as much as landscapes by Gainsborough and Wilson, made a strong impression on Constable. Constable would probably have known the painting regarded as Cranch's masterpiece, Death of Chatterton which belonged to Sir James Winter Lake (now untraced), and he would likewise have had the opportunity to see Rubens' Landscape by Moonlight (Courtauld Institute Galleries) which passed through Christies in April 1796 to the dealer Michael Bryant. Constable may have had the Rubens in mind when he designed the composition for the present painting. PROVENANCE Probably given by the artist to a member of the Constable-Maxwell family of Terregles, Dumfriesshire; Purchased by A.C. Alport 1921; Thence by descent to the present owner EXHIBITED City Art Gallery, Manchester, John Constable 1776-1837, 1956, no. 9; Gainsborough's House, Sudbury, From Gainsborough to Constable, 1991, no. 34 LITERATURE A. Cecil Alport, "Constable's First Landscape?", Country Life, CXII, 10th October 1952, p. 1097 (illus.); R.B. Beckett (ed.), John Constable's Correspondence, 1962-8, vol II, p.6; Robert Hoozee, L'opera completa di John Constable, 1979, p. 88 no. 1 (illus); To be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonne of the Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, R.A., by Graham Reynolds.