Salisbury Cathedral from the River Nadder

c. 1829

This sketch relates to the painting Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831), a six-foot canvas at the National Gallery in London. The fourteenth-century spire of the cathedral rises above the river and fields, pointing up to the cloudy, windswept sky. Constable lavished opaque paint on this sheet, giving texture and vibrancy to the image.

Medium	oil on beige wove paper, mounted on laminate cardboard
Dimensions	7 13/16 x 10 15/16 in. (19.8 x 27.8 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.46
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	On View

Image Caption

John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the River Nadder, c. 1829, oil on beige wove paper, mounted on laminate cardboard. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.46

Select Bibliography

. A Century of British Art from 1737 to 1837. London: Grosvenor Gallery. 1889. Fleming-Williams, Ian. "The Fenwick Oil-Sketches and Constable's 'Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows'." John Herbert, ed. Christie's Review of the Season 1983. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1983. Parris, Leslie and Ian Fleming-Williams. John Constable. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Publishing, 1991. Pionk, Richard C. and Margaret Somers. Constable. Salmagundi Club, October 14 - November 2, 2000. New York, Salmagundi Club. 2000. Parris, Leslie. Constable: Pictures from the Exhibition. London: Tate Publishing. 1991. Parris, Leslie. Constable: A New York Private Collection. New York: Published Privately, 1994. Reynolds, Graham. The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. 2 vol. New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 1984. Parris, Leslie. "Some Recently Discovered Oil Sketches by John Constable." The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 961 (April 1983): 22023. Cormack, Malcolm. Constable. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1986. Fleming-Williams, Ian. Constable and his Drawings. London: Philip Wilson Publishers. 1990. Norman, Geraldine. "Tate Gallery may buy one of five Constable 'finds'." The Times. 61,360. 10/12/1982:1. Norman, Geraldine. "High hopes for Constables." The Times. 11/19/1982. Norman, Geraldine. "Two Constables fetch L540,000." The Times. 61,394. 11/20/1982:2. Phillips, Pearson. "The golf club which knew about four unknown Constables." Telegraph Sunday Magazine. 319. 11/14/1982:11-12. Christie's. "Forthcoming Sales". November-December 1982. 1982. Wilcox, Timothy. Constable and Salisbury: The Soul of Landscape. Exhibition catalogue. London: Scala Books, 2011. Clarke, Jay, ed. Landscape, Innovation, and Nostalgia: The Manton Collection of British Art. Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2012. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

Isabel Constable, the artist’s daughter, by descent, given to Fenwick, probably in 1880s; Alice Ashby Fenwick (d. 1893); Dora Fenwick (D. H. Maffett), her daughter, by descent (from 1893); Major C. W. Maffett, her son, by descent (d. 1982); Trustees of the Mrs. D. H. Maffett Will Trust; Christie’s, London, 19 Nov. 1982, no. 44, sold to Oscar and Peter Johnson, Ltd., as agent for Manton; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton (1982–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.