Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2001.2.141
Gallery Label:
John Constable’s election as a full member of the Royal Academy in February 1829 came just months after the devastating death of his wife, Maria. Despairing, he wrote: “could I get afloat on a canvas of six feet, I might have a chance of being carried away from myself.” He began this oil sketch in 1828, more than a decade after visiting Hadleigh Castle in the summer of 1814 and describing it in a letter to Maria. In spite of, or perhaps fueled by, both his depression and the pressure of being a full Academician, he delivered the completed six-foot painting to the Academy in 1829. This impressive work can now be viewed in the Center’s fourth-floor galleries. Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)
