Keswick, lake
(c. 1807)
Medium
oil on cardboard on mahogany panel
Measurements
25.0 × 43.1 cm (cardboard) 26.4 × 44.6 cm (wood panel)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1926
Gallery location
18th & 19th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
In September and October 1806 Constable went on a tour with his uncle around Westmorland and Cumberland in the Lake District of north- west England. He spent these autumn weeks sketching in pencil, ink wash and occasionally watercolours, making notes on light and atmosphere. The lake seen here is called Derwentwater and lies below the village of Keswick. Constable later painted at least ten oils based on his watercolours and drawings of the region, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution between 1807 and 1809.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in pen and brown ink on paper label on reverse c.: John Constable, R. A. / Keswick Lake (eswick Lake underlined) / Exhibited. R. A. 1807. British Institution 1809 / C. Holmes / 73 Ladbroke Grove (- above 7) / London W.
Accession Number
2031-3
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Landscapes
Subjects (specific)
fields (land) Keswick (inhabited place) lakes (bodies of water) mountains riverbanks riverine landscapes rivers United Kingdom (nation)
Movements
Romanticism (modern European styles )
Provenance
Exhibited Royal Academy, London, 1807, no. 98 as Keswick Lake; collection of Sir Charles Holmes (1868–1936), London, by 1902– c. 1926; with David Croal Thompson of Barbizon House (dealer), London, by 1926; from whom purchased, on the advice of Frank Rinder, for the Felton Bequest, 1926.
Exhibited Royal Academy, London, 1807, no. 98; John Constable, the Natural Painter: 62 Paintings and Drawings from Great Collections, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1973–74, no. 1; Australian and European Masterpieces from Australian National Galleries, Pushkin Museum, Moscow; Hermitage, Leningrad (St Petersberg), 1979–80, no. 14; Constable: Impressions of land, sea and sky, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of New Zealeand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 2006, no. 4.