Two Donkeys

Gallery 392, European Art 1500-1850, third floor (Haas Gallery)

Main Building

Two Donkeys

1816

John Constable (English, 1776–1837)

Constable spent the winter of 1815–16 in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England, with his dying father. Making the most of the unusually warm weather and his proximity to rural subjects, he painted these donkeys on February 29, 1816. Worked on a small scrap of canvas, the sketch served as a preparatory study that Constable used when adding donkeys to three landscapes: a wood scene in autumn, a view of Hampstead Heath, and a path outside the village of Stoke-by-Nayland. At an unknown date, probably following the artist’s death, the sketch was mounted on a piece of wood and the paint extended about an inch in all directions.

Gallery 392, European Art 1500-1850, third floor (Haas Gallery)

Object Details

Title:

Two Donkeys

Date:

1816

Artist:

John Constable (English, 1776–1837)

Medium:

Oil on canvas, mounted on panel

Dimensions:

7 1/2 × 9 7/8 inches (19.1 × 25.1 cm) Inner canvas: 5 7/8 × 7 7/8 inches (14.9 × 20 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

John G. Johnson Collection, 1917

Accession Number:

Inv. 155

Geography:

Made in England, Europe

Provenance

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Gallery 392, European Art 1500-1850, third floor (Haas Gallery)

Main Building

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