Pencil with pen and sepia ink, 16 by 19 cm (6 1/2 by 7 1/2 ins)

Provenance: Isobel Constable; Alfred Tidey, bought by the previous owner from J.Maas & Co, March 1962

These charming studies of a peacock have been dated by Graham Reynolds to Constable's later period (after about 1820). They were probably drawn for one of his commissions to paint country houses, since peacocks were to be found as ornaments in the gardens of many large houses at this date. A peacock appears most distinctly to the left foreground of a painting that Constable executed in 1821 for the Countess of Dysart of the Entrance Front of Malvern Hall, Warwickshire (see Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, Yale, 1984, no.21.81, pl.284). This drawing could be a preparatory study for that work.

We are grateful to Graham Reynolds for his assistance.