Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
formerly attributed to <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-constable-108" aria-label="More by John Constable" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Constable</a>
Barnes Common
Purchased 1879
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
Barnes Common
building - non-specific
bush
carriage
England
figure
heathland
horse
industrial
landscape
people
places
plants and flowers
society
townscapes / man-made features
transport: land
UK countries and regions
UK London
windmill
wooded
painting oil paint canvas
‘Barnes Common’
support: 251 × 352 mm
Purchased 1879
<p>N01066<b> ‘Barnes Common’</b></p>
<p>
<br/>Oil on canvas, 9 7/8×13 1/8 (25.1×35.2).
<br/>Inscribed on the back of the relining canvas: ‘on the old Stretcher was Barnes Common J [...] Constable’ and ‘Garles Sale at Christie May 1862’. A label on the stretcher reads ‘Mr Garles sale Christies May 1862 on the original Stretcher was written “Barnes Common” J. Constable. no date.’, while on the stretcher itself is the further inscription ‘an early work.’
<br/><i>Prov </i>...; Thomas Garle, sold Christie's 24 May 1862(66), bt. James Hughes Anderdon, £9, and sold by him, Christie's 30 May 1879(109; the sale stencil is on the stretcher), bt. Barton, £37. 16s., for the National Gallery; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919. <i>Accession </i><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-barnes-common-n01066" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01066</span></a>.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Tate Gallery 1976(358, as ‘Formerly Ascribed to Constable’).
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Holmes 1902, pp.69, 240; Shirley 1937, pp.lx–lxi, 34; Chamot 1956, p.258
<br/>
<br/>Although not accepted by the Constable family (see under No.49), ‘Barnes Common’ was regarded by Holmes and Shirley as an authentic work dating from about 1805. After Shirley it more or less dropped out of the literature but was not officially demoted until sometime in the 1950s, probably following a letter to the Tate Gallery in 1955 from R.B.Beckett, who said he thought the picture ‘very doubtful’.
<br/>
<br/>As with No.49, the actual author of the work remains to be identified. The title ‘Barnes Common’ was used in Anderdon's sale; in the earlier Garle sale the work was called only ‘A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>Landscape</span></a>, with a windmill and a stage coach’.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Leslie Parris, <i>The Tate Gallery Constable Collection</i>, London 1981
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture Barnes Common building - non-specific bush carriage England figure heathland horse industrial landscape people places plants and flowers society townscapes / man-made features transport: land UK countries and regions UK London windmill wooded