A Stand of Elm Trees (recto); A Study of East Bergholt with the Church (verso)

In a time when landscape painting enjoyed unprecedented popularity in England, John Constable secured a place as a leading artist in the genre. This exploratory sketch by Constable is one of his earliest and largest studies of trees and was probably drawn in Dedham Vale, the area of rolling hills and woods surrounding his home on the border of Essex and Suffolk. Hallmarks of Constable’s technique can be observed here, especially the indistinct description of foliage contrasted with sharply delineated trunks and branches. When viewing one of Constable’s studies of trees, William Blake stated, “Why, this is no drawing, but inspiration.”