X-ray research for Tate exhibition reveals Constable's working practices

The sketch for View on the Stour near Dedham, painted by Constable in 1822, has been analyzed by X-rays prior to Tate Britain's exhibition, Constable: the Great Landscapes, which opens on 1 June 2006. The sketch is the 4th of the 6 large River Stour paintings that Constable exhibited at the Royal Academy during 1819-1825. As with the other River Stour scenes, Constable made a preliminary full-scale compositional sketch in oils when planning the exhibition picture. The X-ray investigation clearly shows that the sketch originally included two boys fishing by the water's edge and a little girl close to one of the wooden beams marking the edge of a boat-building yard in the foreground. These figures were then painted out of the sketch by Constable and replaced by two young boys sitting on the edge of the river bank. In the finished exhibition painting, View on the Stour near Dedham, Constable altered the composition again and did not include the two boys from the sketch. X-ray analysis has successfully revealed a number of such alterations that are not visible on the surface of the work. For more information, contact Helen Beeckmans/Patricia O'Connor, Tate Press Office, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG, Phone: +44-20-7887-8730/32, Fax: +44-20-7887-8729, pressoffice@tate.org.uk