JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. | Nude study

The paper is laid down on canvas. There are some visible, old folds or possibly tears, notably two horizontal lines extending from the centre of either margin into the centre of the composition, and a further zig-zag line upper centre approx. 12 cm. long, and a diagonal line in the upper left corner approx. 8 cm. long. The paint surface is relatively clean, and the varnish is relatively clear. Inspection under ultraviolet reveals fine lines of retouching in the body of the figure, largely confined to his lower half and his arm and elbow. There are concentrated areas of retouching in the upper left corner, to two small areas of the background to the right of the sitter's knee, to a horizontal area below the sitter's feet 1 x 7 cm., and to an area in the seat 1 x 2 cm. There are other retouchings scattered along all four margins, and some fine lines along the aforementioned folds or tears. In overall fair condition.
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Constable diligently attended the Life Classes at the Royal Academy from the earliest days of his admission as a student of the Life Academy in 1800. Farington recorded in his diary entry for 16 November 1807 that 'he attends the life class every evening',¹ and in July the next year the young David Wilkie saw Constable at the Life Class painting a female nude.² It is interesting to note that Constable clearly relished the study of anatomy, writing on 8 January 1802 to Dunthorne about the anatomy lectures by Joshua Brookes: ’I am so much more interested in the study than I expected, and feel my mind so generally enlarged by it, that I congratulate myself on being so fortunate to have attended these lectures. Excepting anatomy… I believe no study is really so sublime or goes to carry the mind of the Divine Architect.' It is not always easy to date these works, though a valiant attempt was made by Andrew Shirley in his pioneering article on Constable’s life studies.³ Graham Reynolds comments on a 'concentrated bout of study from the life which Constable undertook in 1808’, and the present study is likely to date from this period. The elongated figure is characteristic of other Constable studies of this date and, as with several of these, the pose seems to reflect the stance of a bargeman, which the artist had so often observed. It is likely that the model is Sam Strowger, according to Charles Leslie a Suffolk man who had worked on a farm in Constable’s neighbourhood and knew the artist well.⁴ Strowger had enlisted in the Life Guards and became a model at the Academy.

1 The Diary of Joseph Farington, K. Garlick et al. (eds), vol. VIII, New Haven 1978–84, p. 3142.
2 L. Parris et al., John Constable: Further Documents and Correspondence, London 1975 p. 314.
3 A. Shirley, 'John Constable and The Nude', Connoisseur, vol. XCI, April 1933, pp. 213–19.
4 C.R. Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, London 1951, p. 13.