Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<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>
Gillingham Bridge Dorset
Presented by Miss Isabel Constable 1888
adults
architecture
bridge
bridges and viaducts
church
Dorset
England
England, South West
England, Southern
figure
Gillingham
landscape
people
places
religious
river
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
village
water: inland
wooded
<p>In 1811 Dr John Fisher introduced his nephew, John Fisher, to Constable. The younger Fisher became the artist’s closest friend, providing moral and financial support whenever they were needed and often purchasing works from Constable which he could ill afford. In 1819 Fisher became Vicar of Gillingham in Dorset and Constable was invited to stay there in 1820 and again in 1823. On the second occasion he painted this picture of the bridge with the village church beyond. Fisher’s son Osmond later recalled seeing Constable ‘sitting with his easel in the meadow at the right hand corner’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
2002-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-19
Outdoor Sketching
Collection based display
12 May 2003 – 7 May 2006
2006-05-07
12 May 2003 – 7 May 2006
2006-05-07
2003-05-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-12
Constable 1
Collection based display
8 May 2006 – 22 May 2007
2007-05-22
8 May 2006
2006-05-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-05-08
John Constable
Collection based display
28 May 2007 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
28 May 2007 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2007-05-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-28
John Constable: The Struggle for Recognition
Collection based display
5 October 2013 – 5 January 2014
2014-01-05
5 October 2013 – 5 January 2014
2014-01-05
2013-10-05
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2013-10-05
Capturing British Landscape - Turner
Loan-out
20 February 2021 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
20 February 2021 – 31 May 2021
2021-05-31
2021-02-20
Mitsubishi Ichigokan (Tokyo, Japan)
1 July 2022 – 9 October 2022
2022-10-09
2022-07-01
Villa Vauban (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)
24 October 2022 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
2022-10-24
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
2021-02-20
Constable and England: A History of His Affections
Tate partnerships & programmes
Gillingham Bridge, Dorset
support: 321 × 514 mm
frame: 490 × 685 × 65 mm
Presented by Miss Isabel Constable 1888
<p>In 1811 Dr John Fisher introduced his nephew, John Fisher, to Constable. The younger Fisher became the artist’s closest friend, providing moral and financial support whenever they were needed and often purchasing works from Constable which he could ill afford. In 1819 Fisher became Vicar of Gillingham in Dorset and Constable was invited to stay there in 1820 and again in 1823. On the second occasion he painted this picture of the bridge with the village church beyond. Fisher’s son Osmond later recalled seeing Constable ‘sitting with his easel in the meadow at the right hand corner’. </p>

Display caption
2007-05-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-gillingham-bridge-dorset-n01244" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01244</span></a> <b>Gillingham Bridge, Dorset</b> 1823</p>
<p>
<br/>Oil on canvas, 12 1/2×20 1/4 (32.1×51.5).</p>
<p><i>Prov:</i> presented by Isabel Constable to the National Gallery 1888; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1897. <i>Accession </i><span>N01244</span>.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
Tate Gallery 1976(221).
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Holmes 1902, p.245; Shirley 1937, pp.lxvii, 157; Chamot 1956, p.261; Beckett 1961, Paintings: Dorset(4) No.5; Hoozee 1979, No.372.
<br/>
<br/>The entry on No.13 mentioned that Constable's close friend Archdeacon John Fisher held the living of Osmington on the Dorset coast and that the newly married Constables spent part of their honeymoon there in 1816. In 1819 the Vicarage of Gillingham on the other side of the county was added to Fisher's benefices. Constable went there with him briefly in July 1820, during the course of a long visit by the Constables to the Fishers at Salisbury. <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>Drawings</span></a> made on this excursion include one of a different bridge to that seen in No.25 (British Museum, 1910–2–12–229, repr. Day 1975, pl.71; see also V.&amp;A., R.192). Constable's only other visit to Gillingham was in 1823, when, without his family, he stayed there with the Fishers from 22 August until 10 September. In a letter to Maria, postmarked 8 September, Constable wrote: ‘I shall wait here 'till wednesday to get a “line only from you”. and it will enable me to make a little picture of this village rather more compleat it is for fisher-a present to his mother-I shall bring it to London-this is to be paid for’ (JCC II, p.288). The picture mentioned is almost certainly No.25. Constable's only other <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of Gillingham depict Perne's Mill, about a mile from the village. Since No.25 descended to Isabel Constable, Fisher presumably changed his mind about buying the work. His cousin Dorothea, Bishop Fisher's daughter, did however borrow it in April and May 1824 to make a copy, to which there are numerous references in the Constable correspondence between April and July that year.<sup>1</sup>
Dorothea's copy, which Constable said he ‘retouched a little’, is presumably the painting sold by the Fisher family at Sotheby's on 4 December 1957(152) and now in an American private collection (Fig.1).<sup>2</sup> On a label on the back Archdeacon Fisher's son Osmond wrote that he could ‘perfectly recollect seeing him [Constable] sitting with his easel in the meadow at the right hand corner of this picture’ and he also indicated that he had found the painting among his father's effects. Possibly Dorothea gave it to the Archdeacon after he failed to acquire the original.
<br/>
<br/>Another copy of No.25, in an upright format, was in the collection of F.H. Clarke, London (<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> in the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art).
<br/>
<br/>In No.25 Constable omitted the small spire which can be seen on the church tower in one of his 1820 drawings (V.&amp;A., R.189). According to Beckett (JCC VI, p.54), the spire did not actually go until 1838.
<br/>
<br/>1. JCC II, pp.318, 346, 355, VI, pp.156, 160, 163, 168.
<br/>
<br/>2. Oil on canvas, 20 1/4×31 (52×78.7).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Leslie Parris, <i>The Tate Gallery Constable Collection</i>, London 1981
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture bridge bridges and viaducts church Dorset England England, Southern England, South West figure Gillingham landscape people places religious river townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions village water: inland wooded