John Constable, R.A. (East Bergholt, Suffolk 1776-1837 Hampstead)

The present drawing would appear to date stylistically from 1796-8 (see G. Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven and London, 1996, nos. 97.8-97.14) and the date on the inscription probably refers to when the drawing was given to Mary Freer. Freer was the ward of Henry Greswold Lewis, whose portrait Constable painted in 1809 (she later became Mary Wilson-ffrance). Mary herself did some drawing and it is possible that the present drawing was a gift to copy.

Early in June 1813 Constable intended to leave London to spend the summer in East Bergholt. However he was delayed by the arrival of H.G. Lewis and on 30 June he wrote to Maria Bicknell 'I had fixed a day for going to Suffolk - I was however prevented by Mr Lewis's arrival in town from Warwickshre & by a call upon me for portraits'. The present drawing was removed from an album containing a group of lithographed views of Warwickshire by W. Rider, locally published in 1825, one of which has been copied by Mary Wilson-ffrance, who probably compiled the album after her marriage in 1818 to Robert Wilson-ffrance.