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Lot 755
John Constable, RA (British, 1776 –1837) A Fishing Boat on Brighton Beach , circa 1824 pen and brown ink over pencil 17 x 17cm (7 x 7in) Provenance: Isabel Constable (1822-1888), the artist's daughter (Presumably from the collection of one of the artist's children (a 20th century inscription on the reverse reading 'Col Isabelle Constable', suggests this)); thereafter acquired by Sir Robert Witt Exhibited: The Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, 200th Exhibition, including a loan collection of Victorian and Edwardian draughtsman, Winter 1943-44, No 528, A Fishing Boat , Constable, lent by Sir Robert Witt Other Notes: Anne Lyles writes: Constable's visits to Brighton began in 1824 when he took a house there for a few months in the hope that his wife Maria and their children would benefit from the sea air. The family returned to the town for further extended visits in 1825-6 and then again for the long summer of 1828. Constable would join them there as often as he was able, benefitting from the regular coach service which ran between London and this now fashionable coastal resort. The house which Constable selected for the family in 1824 was situated on the western edge of Brighton, not far from the beach, and indeed it was not long before he began to make sketches, initially in oils, of the life along the shore. At first he was dismissive of the town, writing in a letter to his friend John Fisher - penned shortly after his arrival - that it was nothing but 'Piccadilly … by the sea-side' (R.B.Beckett, ed, John Constable's Correspondence: VI; The Fishers, 1968, p.171; letter postmarked 29 August 1824). In fact Brighton was still a working fishing town around this date, and indeed in the same letter Constable told Fisher how much he admired the various 'picturesque' fishing boats on the beach, and these - and their crew - were soon to become a subject of his close scrutiny. Constable's first visits to Brighton in May and June, 1824 were quite brief , but when he returned in July he was able to spend the rest of the summer there, remaining until October. In September and October he embarked on a series of drawings many of which, like A Fishing Boat on Brighton Beach, are carefully worked in pen and ink (or fine brush) over pencil, to which he sometimes added monochrome wash. Ian Fleming-Williams identified some twenty-five to thirty drawings of this rather formal character which take as their theme the long-shore fishing fleet at Brighton and the men who worked it (Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings, 1990, pp.205-9). They generally show the vessels beached (there was no port at Brighton so boats had to put into the shore at high water and then beached as the tide receded), with their sails and nets drying. As Fleming-Williams noted, Constable initially made these drawings in a large sketchbook, measuring about 7 1/8 x 10 ¼ cm (18.1 x 26.1 cm), with a Whatman watermark of 1821, which he had first started using the year before. The sketchbook was later dismantled, and its individual sheets are now spread across a range of public and private collections (Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1984, nos 24.26-42 and 45-49; Graham Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1996, Appendix, nos 24.26A and 24.31A; and Christie's, Old Master and British Drawings, New York, 27 Jan 2016, lot 89). A Fishing Boat on Brighton Beach is so close in style to these drawings, particularly two examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Reynolds 1984, op. cit, nos 24.45 and 24.48) which are similarly executed in pen and ink over pencil, that it seems highly likely that it, too, was originally made on a page of this same sketchbook, and then - at some stage after being removed from the book - was cut down, probably on the left. Fleming-Williams has suggested that these Brighton boat drawings may well be connected with a proposed publishing project that Constable mentions to Fisher in a letter dated 17 December 1824 (R.B.Beckett, op.cit, p. 184). In this letter the artist explains that he had recently met up, in London, with the Anglo-French dealer John Arrowsmith who had just commissioned him to make twelve finished drawings of Brighton boat and beach scenes taken from those (numbering about thirty, he said) which were in his sketchbook. They were to be engraved in England, by S.W.Reynolds, and then published in Paris. It is not clear whether Constable had already been in discussion about this venture with Arrowsmith prior to their meeting in London in December. It is thus difficult to know whether, when making the Brighton beach drawings, the artist was doing so specifically with this project - or even another engraving project - in mind. In all events, Fleming-Williams suggested that Constable is likely to have initially sketched the drawings on the spot in pencil, and then worked over them some time later in pen and ink or wash, perhaps in connection with the Arrowsmith project. The publishing venture itself, however, seems to have come to nothing. A Fishing Boat on Brighton Beach has the collector's mark of Sir Robert Witt ( 1872-1952) on the verso ( Frits Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d'Estampes, Fondation Custodia, 1921, 1956 and 2010, no. 228b). Witt was an important collector of prints and drawings. Although he disposed of some of these during the course of his life-time, he bequeathed a substantial portion of his collection, including drawings by Constable and Gainsborough, to the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.One foxing spot in the middle by the sail. Some discolouration to the cream background, particularly down the right-hand edge.
Lot 781
Anton Oberman (Dutch, 1781-1845) Still life of an English partridge hanging from a terracotta urn, with a melon, black and white grapes, peaches, apples, a pear, a plum and a walnut signed lower right "A Oberman" oil on canvas, in a Dutch frame 64 x 54cm (25 x 21in) Provenance: From a Suffolk country house.Lined canvas. Stiff undulations to the canvas. Old repaired tear in the upper right-hand corner, approx. 5 x 5in, has been filled and retouched. Small losses to ebonised veneer on frame
Lot 12
A SET OF SIX ROYAL WORCESTER CHINA DESSERT PLATES, c.1960's, of shaped circular form with gadroon and shell moulded gilded rims, each painted in colours by Freeman with a still life of fruits on a mossy bank, all signed, black mark, inscribed C55 and various initials, 8 3/4" diameter (Illustrated)
Lot 818
OLIVER CLARE (1853-1927) STILL LIFE WITH A BIRD'S NEST signed, oil on canvas, 19 x 24cm ++In fine condition, unlined, no apparent restoration, not examined under UV. Beneath glass in what is probably the original giltwood and composition frame. The frame with regilding and repairs to the mouldings
Lot 689
†MARY CECILIA CROMPTON (1899-1981) STUDIES INCLUDING HORSES CATS DOGS RABBITS OTHER ANIMALS BIRDS LANDSCAPES AND STILL LIFE 142, pencil and/or watercolour or charcoal (126) and oil (16), various sizes, the largest c35 x 50cm, sold in portfolio ++Somewhat dusty/grubby from long term storage, some paper curl; many quite highly finished compositions, others slight studies
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