Study for "The Leaping Horse"
John Constable (East Bergholt, Suffolk 1776–1837 Hampstead)
Study for “The Leaping Horse,” ca. 1824–25
Oil on canvas
8 3/8 × 10 5/8 in. (21.2 × 27 cm)
Promised Gift from the Collection of Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard
Photo Joseph Coscia Jr.
One of the most significant landscape painters in British history, John Constable is best known for his scenes of the pre-industrial English countryside. This oil sketch was made in preparation for The Leaping Horse, the last of Constable’s celebrated “six-footers,” a series of large-scale paintings of scenes along the River Stour in the artist’s native Suffolk, known since his lifetime as “Constable country.” It is one of a number of drawn and painted sketches related to the final painting (Royal Academy of Arts, London), which was exhibited in 1825 and depicts the moment a barge horse (used to tow barges along waterways) leaps over a cattle fence blocking a towpath at river’s edge. It may have been in the present sketch that Constable first gave form to the idea of adding to the horse a rider, who in urging the animal over the fence strikes a dramatic pose—reminiscent of an equestrian portrait—lauded as a “stroke of genius.”
Transcript
Curator's Personal Reflection
Speaker: Aimee Ng, Curator
This is the only painting in the Eveillard gift, and it captures Constable’s deft brushwork, even in this small scale. A squiggle of white paint brings to life the billowing sleeve of the rider atop the leaping horse; puffy clouds part to reveal flecks of blue sky beyond. It’s amazing to think of this little study made in preparation for Constable’s final and most dramatic “six-footer” painting, how he captures in this eight-by-ten-inch canvas the monumentality and vitality of a final painting so big it feels like you could walk into it. Looking at this small oil sketch closely, one can get a sense of how richly the artist layered his paints, colors beneath breaking through colors on top: nothing rests flatly on the canvas’s surface, every element seems to move, pulse, sway—just like the cool, windy day in the English countryside Constable captures here.
Transcript
Curator's Personal Reflection
Speaker: Aimee Ng, Curator
This is the only painting in the Eveillard gift, and it captures Constable’s deft brushwork, even in this small scale. A squiggle of white paint brings to life the billowing sleeve of the rider atop the leaping horse; puffy clouds part to reveal flecks of blue sky beyond. It’s amazing to think of this little study made in preparation for Constable’s final and most dramatic “six-footer” painting, how he captures in this eight-by-ten-inch canvas the monumentality and vitality of a final painting so big it feels like you could walk into it. Looking at this small oil sketch closely, one can get a sense of how richly the artist layered his paints, colors beneath breaking through colors on top: nothing rests flatly on the canvas’s surface, every element seems to move, pulse, sway—just like the cool, windy day in the English countryside Constable captures here.