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Created by John Constable (1776-1837), the artist; by descent to his daughter, Isabel Constable (1822-1888) [1]; acquired by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, Ltd., 160 New Bond Street, London, after 1887 [2], probably at auction, at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, England, June 17, 1892 (lot 239, 3 ‘Studies of Landscapes’), in “Catalogue of Works of the late John Constable, R.A….Many of which were Exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, 1889, as the Property of Miss Isabel Constable” [3];… ; probably acquired by Edward William Hooper (1839-1901), Cambridge, Massachusetts in London, England [4]; probably by descent to his daughter, Frances “Fanny” Curtis (née Hooper, 1877-1963), Boston, Massachusetts [5];...; acquired by Oscar and Peter Johnson Ltd., London, England [a]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907-1999), 1964 [b]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, September 10, 1999.

Notes:
[1] Per an inscription on a label affixed to the back of the frame claiming "late the property of Miss Isabel Constable deceased."

[2] Per a fragmentary label affixed to the back of the frame and overlaid with a Pitt & Scott Ltd. sticker. In its partial form, it reads "Limited|Publishers, V…ers of, and Dealers in|...Art,|...[St]reet, 160. Its content and typography matches other examples of Dowdeswell's labels pictured elsewhere, e.g. https://paintings.theclowescollection.org/technical-reports/c10062. The painting was first known as "Study of Landscape," according to the inscription on the back of the frame that gives Isabel Constable's prior ownership. Dowdeswell coincidentally exhibited a no. 42 "Study of Landscape September 22nd 1808," and no. 43 "Study of Landscape" at a December 1892 exhibition, https://www.exhibitionculture.arts.gla.ac.uk/exhibition.php?eid=227. The label also gives Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell’s gallery address as 160 New Bond Street, a site they only occupied after 1887; this provides a probable terminus post quem for when this artwork entered their collection.

[3] Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell acquired a number of works by Constable at the June 17, 1892 auction. A marked catalog indicates that Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell bought lot 239, “Studies of Landscapes,” which consisted of three separate works. As discussed in the note above, they exhibited two works with related names at a December 1892 exhibition.

[4] Edward William Hooper was an active collector of art and one of the original trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Hooper had previously bought several works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler from Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, and he appears to have been in England in 1892 based on ship’s records, departing in October (prior to the December exhibit at Dowdeswell & Dowdeswell Gallery). In his will, Hooper directed that all his art ("All pictures....works of art") be split evenly among his five daughters. See Robert Gardner McClung, Representative Massachusetts Wills, selected by Robert Gardner McClung, Boston, 1912: p. 80. While we are certain that this work was owned by his daughter Fanny Curtis, it seems highly probable that she inherited the work from her father.

[5] I.e., the "Mrs. G.S. Curtis" (Greely S. Curtis, 1871-1947) named in the documentation inherited from Oscar and Peter Johnson, Ltd. and invoked by the object's provenance in Graham Reynolds, The early paintings of John Constable (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 1:149, https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:3892926. Fanny was the daughter of Edward W. Hooper (1839-1901), one of the first trustees of the MFA Boston, and owner of two other Constable cloud studies now in the YCBA's collection (B1981.25.146 and B1981.25.147). The work may have been purchased by Edward and passed by descent to Fanny. Nevertheless, her husband--Greely Stevenson Curtis Jr. (1874-1947)--was a prominent engineer and aviator and may also have had affluence sufficient to buy art, although no collection in his name is known. The Curtises kept a home in Marblehead, MA, where Fanny lived after her husband's death.

Citations:
[a] Graham Reynolds, The early paintings and drawings of John Constable, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 1996, p. 149 (v. 1), no. 10.30

[b] John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 287, no. 95, pl. 95, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)