Tuesday, November 22, 2016

John Constable drawings of the Hobson family, 1806

John Constable
Landscape with farm buildings
early 19th century
watercolor
British Museum

The English painter John Constable (1776-1837) was thirty years old when he spent the months of June and July 1806 as a guest at Markfield House in Tottenham – north of London at that time, though long since engulfed. It was a prosperous family with sixteen children. Father was a large-scale builder who obtained many government contracts. Several of the daughters were fashionable young women, exactly contemporary with Jane Austen's heroines. Curators at the British Museum, which owns one of Constable's sketchbooks from this visit, can only speculate about the terms of Constable's presence in the Hobson household. He may have been preparing to paint a portrait or portraits of the family. Yet the only Hobson portrait by Constable known to exist was painted two years later, when one of the daughters was married. There is a suggestion that he may have been employed during these two months as a drawing master. Whatever his status, Constable's sketchbook captured more than enough intimate Hobson moments in that summer of 1806 to propel the plot of another Sense and Sensibility.

John Constable
Ann and stick
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Ann Hobson
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Emma Hobson
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Emma, Laura and Susanna Hobson reading
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Young woman reading
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Young woman reading
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Susanna Hobson reading
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John  Constable
Susanna Hobson
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Joshua and Laura holding hands
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Two figures embracing
c. 1806
drawing
British Musuem

John Constable
Laura Hobson soaring to the sun
c. 1806
drawing
British Museum

John Constable
Young woman in a frenzy
c. 1806
watercolor
British Museum

John Constable
Young woman and spinet
c. 1806
watercolor
British Museum