Arundel Mill and Castle

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Arundel Mill and Castle

Artist John Constable (British, 1776-1837)

Date1837

DimensionsPainting: 28 1/2 × 39 1/2 in. (72.4 × 100.3 cm)
Frame: 42 × 52 1/2 × 6 3/4 in. (106.7 × 133.4 × 17.1 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1926.53

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 31

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesLeslie, C.R., Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, London, 1843, pp.109, 115, repr.; (ed. A. Shirley), London, 1937, pp. lxxiii, lxxix, xxxv, 353, 356, pl. 150.

Holmes, C., Constable and His Influence on Landscape Painting, London, 1902, pp. xiv, 217, 222, 252, repr.

Windsor, John Constable, London, 1903, pp. xvi, 145.

Henderson, Constable, London, 1905, pp. 105-106, 112.

Lucas, John Constable the Painter, London, 1924, p. 59.

Michel, Histoire de l'Art, Paris, 1925, VIII, 376.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 46, 1926, repr.

Wilenski, Masters of English Painting, Boston, n.d., p. 217.

Godwin, Blake-More, Catalogue of European Paintings, Toledo, 1939, p. 310, repr. p. 311.

Key, Sidney J., John Constable, New York and London, 1948, p. 102.

Jespersen, A., "Arundel Mill by John Constable," Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, VIII, July 1950, repr. p. (2).

Gunther, Charles F., "Landscapes of Fancy and Freedom," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 2, Spring 1960, p. 39-40, repr. p. 37.

Constable, W. G., Art Collecting in the United States of America: An Outline of a History, London, T. Nelson, 1964, p. 130.

Peacock, C., John Constable, The Man and His Work, Greenwich, CT, 1965, p. 40 and 40n.

Reynolds, G., Constable, The Natural Painter, London, 1965, pp. 124-125, 130, 132, 133, 147, pl. 80.

Beckett, R. B., ed., John Constable's Correspondence, Ipswich, 1962-1970, III, pp. 135, 146, 148-150, pl. 6; IV, p. 229; V, pp. 28n., 31, 32, 36, 37, 202; VI, p. 77n.

Kitson, M., "Bicentenaire de la Royal Academy," Revue de l'Art, V, 1969, p. 94.

Taylor, B., Constable: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolours, London, 1973, pp. 10, 18, 211, pl. 167.

Reynolds, G., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of the Constable Collection, 2nd ed., London, 1973, p. 225.

Parris, L., C. Shield and I. Fleming-Williams, ed., John Constable: Further Documents and Correspondence, London, 1975, pp. 57, 100, 101, 102 (sketch, 62).

Fleming-Williams, I., Constable Landscape Watercolours and Drawings, London, 1976, pp. 11, 116, fig. 123.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 39-40, pl. 332.

Hoozee, Robert, L'opera completa di Constable, Milano, 1979, no. 565, repr. p. 145.

Walker, John, John Constable, New York, 1978, pp. 30, 64, 150, 152, 158, repr. (col.). pl. 57.

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 58.

Smith, Peter D., Constable, New York, 1981, p. 89, repr. (col.) p. 90.Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXV, no. 963, June 1983, p. 384.

Reynolds, Graham, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, New Haven, 1984, pp. 297-298, pl. 1086 (col.).

Darracott, Joseph, England's Constable, London, 1985, p. 139, 140, repr. (col.).

Cormack, Malcolm, Constable, Oxford, 1986, pp. 220, 229, 236, 240-242, pl. 227 (col.).

Rosenthal, Michael, Constable, London, 1987, p. 195, fig. 187.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 236, repr. (col.).

Chambaz, Bernard, Le Dernier Tableau: De Simone Martini a Zao Wou-Ki, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 2017, p. 181, repr. (col.) p. 180.

Lyles, Anne, Late Constable, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2021, p. 49, no. 39, repr. (col.) p. 107.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, 1837, no. 193.

London, Royal Academy, Works of the Old Masters Associated with Works of Deceased Members of the British School, 1871, no. 4.

Liverpool, Liverpool Art Club, Oil Paintings by British Artists Born Before 1801, 1881, no. 15.

London, Royal Academy, Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Members of the British School, 1885, no. 64.

London, Grosvenor Gallery, A Century of British Art from 1737 to 1837, 1888, no. 47.

Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Inaugural Exhibition, 1915, no. 70, 26.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Turner, Constable, and Bonington, 1946, no. 147, repr.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Age of Enlightenment, English Art of the Eighteenth Century, 1948, repr. p. 19.

Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1915-1965.

London, Royal Academy, Bicentenary Exhibition: 1768-1968, 1968, I, no. 97; II, repr. p. 62.

London, Tate Gallery, John Constable, 1st ed., 1976, no. 335, p. 7, 202, 1837, no. 1 (entry by L. Parris and I. Fleming-Williams).

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Constable's England, 1983, no. 64, pp. 174, 176, 183, repr. (col.).

London, Tate Gallery, Constable, 1991, no. 220, pp. 38, 373, 384-385, 483, 507. London, Royal Academy of Arts, John Constable: The Late Work, October 30, 2021 - February 13, 2022.

Label TextChildren fish and cattle wander through the English countryside in Arundel Mill and Castle, John Constable’s last painting. Constable captured the ever-changing effects of light and weather in his paintings like few before him: clouds move across the sky, causing the light to shift; a breeze blows through the trees; and sunlight sparkles on moving water. His works had a strong influence on the Barbizon group of landscape painters (for example, Théodore Rousseau) and on the Impressionists a generation later (see galleries 33 and 35). During two trips to southern England in 1834 and 1835, Constable made sketches of Arundel Mill and the castle on the hill beyond it. Entranced by the Sussex landscape, he observed, “The Castle is the chief ornament of this place—but all here sinks into insignificance in comparison with the woods and hills…and the trees are beyond everything beautiful.” He achieved the energy and spontaneity of his painting style—what he called its “broken ruggedness”—with rapid dabs of highlights and thick strokes of paint that he then reworked in places with a palette knife.